Trust
by robinyj
Summary: After a massacre at a research facility the team must work quickly in an attempt to save hundreds of lives. Meanwhile, certain factions learn about Peter's unique ability and take an interest in acquiring it for themselves.
1. Breakfast with the Bishops

Disclaimer: Olivia and the Bishops do not belong to me, nor anything else Fringe related. It is all Fox's and JJ's. Thanks for letting me borrow them though.

Set a week after "The Arrival". Spoilers for that ep and everything leading up to it.

Author's Note: My first Fringe fanfiction, hopefully not my last. I've seen a trend toward Olivia/Peter in a lot of the stories out there, which is cool, but not really my thing. I'm an action/adventure hurt/comfort girl myself and that is what you will find here. As more episodes come out this story may have to change a little to fit canon, but for now I have a pretty clear plot in my head and I will let you guys get to it and let you know that there will be Peter angst to come eventually. So please enjoy:

Trust by Robinyj

It was a normal morning for Rachael Sutton. She had her coffee, the red blouse she seemed to wear every second week, a newspaper tucked under her arm and as she shuffled quickly across the street in front of waiting traffic she could see Marcy waiting for her as usual at the corner. The only thing that was not normal about this morning was that Rachael was very late for work as shown by the tapping of her assistant Marcy's foot and the exaggerated gaze at her watch when she saw Rachael finally approaching.

"Should I even ask?" Marcy questioned as Rachael continued towards the end of the road, not slowing once she had crossed the street.

"It's best if you don't, it involves a traffic light, some children on rollerskates, some swerving, it's not anything I want to discuss unless I'm forced to testify in a Court of Law," Rachael warned. "What do we have today?"

Marcy was ready with her answer, had been ready for the past twenty minutes, "A meeting with Dr. Sargeant in, oh look, 12 minutes, about the patent for DX-24. There was some kind of breakthrough on the seventh floor last night, I didn't hear a lot about it before I came down and Nina Sharp's assistant called twice wanting to know where we're at with you know what."

"I'd like to know too," Rachael muttered, but nodded thankfully to Marcy for the usual morning update. The work they did was competitive and cutthroat and that's why Rachael got Marcy to meet her outside every morning with the daily gossip and reports so she wouldn't get sidetracked by any new information while in her office or at a meeting. It kept Rachael ahead and she liked that. Having to rush to her meeting with Dr. Sargeant however, she did not like. Cursing her high heels she continued her light jog to the doors of Synco Research and pulled the heavy front door open.

"Ugh, where's the doorman?" she asked with a sigh as the huge door closed behind her. However, her first step inside was her last as she took one look around the lobby, screamed, dropped her coffee and backed out of the building as quickly as possible.

"What's wrong?" Marcy demanded as she was pushed back by Rachael in her rush to evacuate the scene. Once outside Rachael felt herself hyperventilating but managed to frantically pull out her phone and dial 911. When the operator picked up she was sobbing:

"Oh god, oh god, they're all dead!"

* * *

Agent Olivia Dunham looked at her watch as she strolled down the familiar hotel hallway toward the Bishops' suite. It was nearly 8:30am and she was scheduled to be in the office at 9. The Bishops didn't exactly have set hours but they usually stayed in the lab at Harvard from 9-5 unless they were working on something specific. Normally the FBI provided their transportation for them, or Peter would get sick of being driven around and lug them both to Harvard in his father's incredibly old car. Today however, Olivia decided to pick up the two geniuses herself in order to see how they were adjusting to living together since the factors that would keep them from cohabitating peacefully were limitless. The list of things that could cause tension between these two included, but was not limited to, the standard father/son abandonment issues, Peter's stubbornness, Walter's arrogance and mental instability and the fact that Peter had been kidnapped and tortured just the week before. It was the last one that was the real reason Olivia was about to knock on their door. When Peter had been in top mental form she had had full confidence in his ability to handle Walter and his eccentricities, but being tortured, abducted, it took away something from most people and though Peter had been putting on a brave front for the past week Olivia could see the cracks. He needed time to deal with what had happened to him, and trying to do that while taking care of an eccentric estranged father wasn't the easiest thing in the world. She hoped she might be able to make it a little easier with her presence.

Raised voices from behind the door made her pause before knocking and listen to the commotion going on inside.

"Walter, I don't care how healthy, delicious, or scientifically balanced it will be, this is disgusting!"

"It's perfectly harmless and it's good for the mind. Now put it back before you contaminate it."

"I'm sorry but we are not cultivating bacteria in our fridge just so you can make home-made yogurt. I refuse to have Petri dishes of germs beside my milk. We'll get yogurt at the store, full of probiotics and bacteria," she heard Peter promise, calming down slightly as he always did eventually.

"It won't be the same," Walter tacked on quietly in defeat, apparently not having it in him to fight with his son this morning. Olivia took the opportunity the moment of silence created to knock on the door.

"I'll get it, eat your oatmeal," Peter ordered and Olivia heard his footsteps approach the door. When he first appeared Peter wore a look of frustration and exhaustion but upon seeing it was Olivia at the door he quickly forced on his cocky, carefree smile that she could see through every time. Defense mechanism, she knew, Peter was not one to let his defenses down and she was not about to force him to … yet. But someday he would have to talk.

"Agent Dunham, how nice to see you when it's not an ungodly early hour of the morning," Peter greeted her.

She smiled and nodded, acknowledging that she usually showed up pretty early in the day, "Thought I would give you guys a break. Need a ride to the lab, I was passing by."

Peter looked hesitant for a moment but then nodded, "Sure, sounds good, come on in I uh, I think Walter has pants on but maybe just … wait here for a second."

"That's probably a good idea," Olivia agreed not wanting to see anything unnecessary. After a moment she heard Peter call out from the kitchen.

"We have pants, come on in."

As Olivia walked into the small kitchen in the hotel suite she spotted Walter sitting at the counter sprinkling what looked like brown sugar into his oatmeal while Peter poured himself a cup of coffee. Peter sighed as Walter completely ignored, or hadn't noticed, that Olivia had come into the room.

"Walter, you want to tear yourself away from your bowl for a second and say hi?"

Dr. Bishop appeared startled by his son's request and quickly looked up, "What? Oh yes, hello. I … I have to get the ratio just right you see, the saturation rate of oatmeal to sugar is dependant on many variables … the texture of the oatmeal, the ratio of water …"

"That's great," was the only response Olivia could come up with as Walter trailed off, but he was lost in his own world again so it hardly mattered.

"Coffee?" Peter offered.

"Sure," Olivia said even though she wanted to get to the office she had a feeling she should probably try not to interrupt their morning routine too much. Peter handed her the coffee and then motioned her towards the couch to give Walter the silence he needed to calculate his breakfast. Still in a mild state of undress, but not seeming to care in the least, Peter's unbuttoned shirt slipped open slightly as he sat down and Olivia caught a glimpse of the bruises on his ribs caused by whatever weapon it was the Observer had shot him with. He was lucky they hadn't been broken and she knew even now breathing must have been painful. Making a point not to cringe on his behalf Olivia asked:

"So, how have you two been doing?"

Peter laughed mirthlessly as he took a sip of his coffee, "Oh, couldn't be better, you know I've always dreamed about running a daycare so every day is just heaven for me."

Olivia gave him a look which he read easily, "Yeah, that's not what you were asking. I'm fine Liv, thanks. I've been better but I'm all right. Walter is slowly getting more lucid, which is a blessing and a curse as it means he can take better care of himself but tries to run more experiments … everywhere."

"Yogurt?"

Peter smiled, realizing Olivia had heard their earlier conversation, "Yogurt, exactly. But I'll survive, I've been through worse, unfortunately."

"That's good. Not the being through something worse part, but the surviving part I mean. Peter, if you need any help with anything though please let me know, any help with your father or the lab, or even if you just need someone to talk to. I know this hasn't been easy for you," Olivia offered, trying to reach out though she couldn't really explain why.

Peter smiled uncomfortably, appreciating her sentiment but not exactly skilled at participating in any type of personal conversation, at least not willingly.

"Thanks Liv," he said finally. "But I'm fine really, for now. I'll let you know if anything changes."

"Sure," Olivia replied taking note of his defensive response. Also noticing his discomfort she offered him an out of the conversation, "We should get to the lab. Is Walter ready to go?"

"God only knows," Peter mumbled as he pushed himself off the couch and moved back towards the kitchen. "Walter, we gotta go, how's that oatmeal coming?"

"I need a napkin," Walter announced slipping into the child-like helplessness that sometimes came over him.

"Of course you do," Peter said as he grabbed one off the counter without missing a beat and passed it to his father. Walter cleaned off his face as Peter sighed looking at the brown sugar all over the counter. Walter looked down as well and was good enough to look apologetic.

"Oh yes, the ratio you see was very inexact …"

Peter brought up a hand to halt his explanation, "I really don't need to hear it. I'll clean this up, you go get dressed, Olivia is waiting to drive us."

"Olivia?" Walter questioned then turned around to see her in the doorway, "why hello my dear, when did you get here?"

It was easy for Olivia to catch the cringe that Peter tried to cover up when his father's memory lapsed again but Olivia was good at covering things up too.

"Just now Dr. Bishop, but we really have to get going."

"Yes, of course, of course. I hope it's cold out. Peter bought me a new hat and I think it will be just right for the occasion. I'll show it to you," Walter announced as he excitedly made his way towards his room to dress.

When Walter disappeared Olivia sent a small smirk Peter's way, who was cleaning off the counter.

"To be clear," Peter said, "the FBI bought him a new hat. I picked out a new hat because all the ones he liked had cartoon characters on them. I think the "Hello Kitty" one really caught his eye."

"I've always been a Scooby-Doo kind of girl myself," Olivia joked.

"Why am I not surprised that even as a child Olivia Dunham was solving mysteries?"

Peter had made a good point but Olivia brushed it off, "Who mentioned being a child? It was on last night."

This actually made Peter laugh as he finished cleaning up and focused on finally buttoning up his shirt. They turned as Walter came bustling down the hallway, now fully dressed and eagerly pulling his new black winter cap over his head. He adjusted it a moment then turned to Olivia.

"What do you think?"

"It's very smart," she replied. Behind her Peter was pulling on his coat and gesturing towards the door.

"Okay, the fashion show's over Walter, we gotta go."

Olivia smiled as she moved to dump the rest of her coffee down the sink and then led the Bishops out of the hotel suite. While they traveled down the hallway she looked at Peter, amazed at how much he was the parent in his relationship with his father. It had to be hard but he was handling it well and the new badge that he was at this moment hanging around his neck meant he was going to be sticking around to keep doing it. That thought made her smile.

TBC

The prologue is a bit shorter than my usual chapters. Once the action gets going the sections will be longer and more fun to write. Please tell me what you think, it's hard to get a feel for these characters with just four episodes under my belt so I'm open to suggestions. Also, this will be a multi-chapter fic so get ready, I'm thinking at least 8 chapters. Thanks for reading. Later, Robin.


	2. The Massacre at Symco Research

A/N - Well the response to the prologue has been just fantastic and I'm glad so many of you are excited for this fic. I'm very excited too as it is shaping up nicely in my head and on paper. Hope you enjoy this next chapter, though unfortunately the really fun stuff doesn't happen until chapter 3. Hope you'll stick around for it.

Trust

By Robinyj

When they reached the lab at Harvard a little before 9am Olivia decided to go inside for a few minutes to see what they were working on at the moment. She didn't have anything pressing to do at the office and Broyles would understand her need to check up on their somewhat unorthodox team. When they got inside they found Astrid already at one of the computers with a coffee cup in her hand.

"Morning Astrid," Olivia greeted her, "What are you working on?"

"I got a new hat," Walter beamed, butting in front for Astrid's attention before she could answer Olivia's question.

"Oh … well, it's nice," Astrid answered awkwardly.

"Don't feel too special," Peter told her, "He also showed it to two students as we came in, a professor and some guy waiting to cross the street."

"Well, it deserves to be seen," Astrid supplied as a response to Walter which seemed to please him as he shuffled away to go start his own work. "Morning Agent Dunham, I was just doing some filing, fixing up our notes on the Pattern, making sure we have everything, taking the crazy parts out of Walter's reports."

The last part she whispered secretly in Olivia's ear to which Olivia could only smile and nod, "That's probably for the best."

Astrid moved to the side to let Olivia see the way she was arranging their files. While she scrolled through a few documents Olivia could see Peter from the corner of her eye trying to be inconspicuous as he popped back two pills while he thought everyone else was occupied. Olivia knew Peter well enough to know that she should act like she hadn't seen anything but it still made her wonder just how much pain Peter was still in from his abduction the week before, or were the pills for something else?

Her pondering was interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone.

"Dunham," she answered.

"Agent Dunham, where are you?"

She recognized the deep, straight to business voice as Broyles and answered, "I'm at the lab at Harvard I was just on my way in."

"Don't bother. Grab your team and meet me at the Symco Research Building on Granville Street. There's been an incident, you should see for yourself."

"We'll be there as soon as we can," Olivia promised and hung up.

"Sorry guys, get your coats back on, Broyles has something for us to see on Granville Street," Olivia announced to Peter and Walter.

"That's terrible news. I was just about to milk Jean, she's very full," Walter explained.

"Astrid, sounds like you have something to do while we're gone," Peter joked as he passed by her on his way to the door.

"And can you do me a favor, look up everything we have on Symco Research. I don't know what I might need so gather it all," Olivia added.

"Can do. Have fun," Astrid yelled as they started to leave.

Just as he was almost out the door Walter turned around, "Make sure you milk her on her left side, she's touchy about her right hoof, might kick you."

And with a smile he was gone and Astrid was once again alone in the lab. Jean mooed from across the room.

Astrid sat back down at her computer with an air of decisiveness, "There is no way I am milking a cow."

* * *

Granville Street was fairly far across town and it was almost ten when the three arrived at the scene of the Symco Research building. It hadn't been hard to spot the place, police were blocking off the roads for several blocks in all directions and the building was barely even in sight before they were forced to get out of their car. Amid the confusion she mostly saw FBI and Hazmat agents, the city cops were in charge only of keeping the civilians away. Almost everyone was walking around in quarantine suits and as much of the building as possible had been wrapped in plastic to avoid contamination. She spotted Broyles immediately as he was waiting for her just beyond the road block.

"I'm guessing we have something airborne?" she asked immediately upon seeing the quarantine suits.

"We aren't sure yet but we aren't taking any chances. The bodies are still all inside, we're cataloguing and IDing them before we move them," Broyles explained.

"How many bodies are we talking about?" Peter enquired warily.

"We can't be sure yet, we've only gotten up to the fourth floor. But let's just say it would have been a good day to call in sick," Broyles said with only traces of compassion tingeing his voice.

"Wait, you're telling me that everyone in that whole twenty-storey building is dead?" Peter repeated, unable to hear this.

"That's exactly what I'm telling you and we aren't sure how they died but we know it was fast. There wasn't a single phone call to 911 until someone came into the building and found everyone dead. Suit up all of you, we're going to need you inside," Broyles ordered.

But Peter was still in shock over the sheer scope of what they were investigating, "Olivia, that's … that's a lot of people. That's like six, seven hundred people at least, that's a massacre!"

"I know," she replied, just as disgusted as him but better trained to hide and repress her feelings. "So it's up to us to find out how they died and why, and make sure it doesn't happen again. Come on, let's get some suits on."

Still shaking his head Peter followed behind Olivia towards the quarantine tent, urging Walter forward as well. It took ten minutes to get the plain white plastic protective suits on and then they were looked over by emergency staff for another ten minutes to ensure that all closings were sealed and everything was airtight. Before they were fitted they were given earpieces and microphones so they could talk to each other as the suits were almost completely soundproof as well.

"I haven't worn one of these in almost twenty years," Walter commented with a smile as they were about to enter the building. "They seem much more efficient than I recall."

"Twenty years of advancements will do that," Peter replied as he went to pick up their forensics kits but then lunged at his father and grabbed his arm. "Whoa, whoa!"

"What? What's wrong?" Olivia demanded as she turned on them.

Peter sighed incredulously as he released his father and gritted through clenched teeth, "He was playing with the zipper."

The sheer stupidity of doing such a thing left Olivia only able to say, "Walter."

The scientist had the sense to look chagrined and embarrassed though, "I … I was curious. Yes, quite foolish of me, you're right. I'm sorry. Won't happen again."

"All right," Olivia said after a moment of thought but then shared a look with Peter that obviously said 'keep an eye on him' to which Peter nodded his understanding.

The team walked through two sets of quarantine doors before they moved through the revolving doors leading into the building. The building's lights were on which unfortunately provided more than enough illumination to clearly see the massacre in front of them. Bodies covered the floor, most wearing suits and business attire, clearly employees, Olivia spotted one man in bicycle shorts who she assumed was a courier who had made an unfortunately timed delivery. She looked down at the body closest to her, a young woman in a business suit, and examined what was evident on every body she could see – her eyes were bloody masses that appeared to have melted away and blood oozed from her nose and both earlobes pooling on the floor around her head. Every corpse in sight showed the same signs; slumped on the floor, bleeding from their nose and ears, eyes bloody, empty pools that seemed to have melted back into their heads. It was horrible. It took Olivia more than a moment to collect herself and move further than her first initial step into the building.

Behind her she could hear Peter's disgust over such huge loss of life, "My god. Everyone in the building died like this?"

"That's what Broyles said, and if no one called for help that means they at least all died fast and presumably at the same time," Olivia theorized.

"Interesting," Walter muttered who was now kneeling on the floor examining the closest body, "Severe hemorrhaging of the telencephalon could cause such results, somehow combined with the rupture of the sclera. Could the tympanic membrane still be intact I wonder?"

As usual Olivia looked to Peter to translate, over the last few weeks they had found it much faster than attempting to get Walter to repeat himself and dumb down his thoughts for her.

"He pretty much just said their brains melted and their eyeballs burst. He's not sure about the ears," Peter supplied as he examined a body himself.

Olivia didn't think she would be able to offer much to the medical aspects of this case so focused on a tent that had been set up inside the lobby of the building. She grabbed the arm of a passing agent.

"Excuse me, what's in that tent?"

"The woman who called it in, Rachael Sutton. Showed up late for work and found the building like this. We're keeping her for questioning and observation, so far she's not showing any signs of illness just hysteric," the agent explained and then went back to his tasks.

Olivia nodded but was intrigued, "Guys, apparently we have a survivor, I'm going to go talk to her … Walter!"

Her cry of shock caused Peter and several other agents to turn around in time to see Walter finish removing his protective headgear. Completely disregarding her exclamation he bent his head over the body he was examining and listened to the sloshing sound it made as he rolled the head back and forth.

"Walter, what are you doing?" Peter joined in a cry as he lunged at his father again and tried to replace the mask. Walter batted him away in annoyance.

"Get that off me, stop it, it's totally unnecessary I assure you," Walter cried in annoyance as Peter persisted.

"You'll forgive me if I don't take your word on it," Peter yelled and tried again but Walter stood up and moved away from him.

"This could not have been caused by a disease, virus or any kind of chemical," he yelled emphatically. "The speed and extent of these injuries indicate a weapon of some kind was used, not in the biological sense but something that could attack the cells of the brain, disrupt them. The entire mass of gray matter has become soup, you can hear it when you jiggle their heads."

With a sigh Peter gave up on Walter's helmet and threw it aside, if it was something contagious then Walter was infected by now anyway. Olivia came to the same conclusion so instead of being angry asked:

"What kind of weapon? How could this happen?"

But Walter could only shake his head, "I don't know, not yet. I will need to do a more extensive examination, I will need one of these bodies. Can I have one? Two would be even better."

"Yes, once hazmat releases the bodies we'll have two transported to the lab, you can examine them here until then," Olivia allowed. "Peter I'm going to go talk to our witness but I don't know how forthcoming she'll be. Would you mind looking around this place see if you can find anything unusual, check out their labs? I want to know why this place was attacked."

"Sure thing boss lady," Peter said as he picked up his kit, actually glad to get away from Walter as he was angry at the man for doing something so ridiculously insane as remove his protective suit in the middle of a quarantine zone. "Walter can pretty much watch himself now anyway."

It was obvious that Walter would not be budging from the side of the corpse he was examining so Olivia asked two agents to keep an eye on him and added, "And nobody removes their suits until Hazmat says so, I don't care how sure he is."

As she watched Peter disappear up a flight of stairs to investigate the rest of the building Olivia made her way towards the isolation tent set up for their survivor. Pushing aside the plastic barrier Olivia found a woman who appeared to be in her early thirties with a smart business suit who was normally probably very well kept in appearance but now had her hair strewn everywhere and mascara running down her face as she had been crying for some time.

"Hello, I'm Special Agent Olivia Dunham, are you Ms. Sutton?" Olivia asked softly, trying not to startle her.

The woman looked up at Olivia and made a visible attempt to calm herself, "Yes, you can call me Rachael."

"All right, Rachael. How are you doing?" Olivia started.

Rachael rolled her eyes at the seeming ridiculousness of the question but Olivia was thankful that the woman was cooperative to reply without sarcasm, "I feel fine, physically. I don't think my eyes are going to melt out of my head, at least I hope not. My co-workers are all dead, but thankfully I didn't like very many of them anyway."

Olivia offered a fraction of a smile for the poor attempt at humor, "Can you tell me what happened here? Everything you know."

"It's not much. I … I was running late, I had to get to a meeting, I thought it was weird that the doorman didn't get the door for me and when I got inside I saw everyone … like this. I ran out of the building and called 911," Rachael explained as she wiped her eyes of more tears.

Nodding sympathetically Olivia continued, "Ms. Sutton what exactly does Symco Research do research on?"

"Technology."

Olivia waited for more. There was none.

"Just technology, that's a little vague don't you think?"

Rachael shook her head, "I'm not at liberty to say anything more."

"We have a building full of dead innocent people, I think you can take some liberties," Olivia pushed, slowly having her sympathy replaced with anger.

"No, I'm afraid I can't. We better and create new technologies, that's all you need to know."

"I think I need to know a little more than that. What kind of technology? Weapons? Could your researchers have brought this upon yourselves? Caused this somehow? I have to know if whatever happened here can happen again and what could have caused it," Olivia told her seriously but Rachael seemed unphased by her passion.

"It wasn't anything of ours, I know that much. We aren't working on anything that could do this," Rachael replied her back straightening as if challenging Olivia to argue with her. But Olivia could tell she would be getting very little solid information from this woman and decided she would do best to get answers on her own.

"Well, if your work is that big a secret then I'm betting the surveillance cameras around here are pretty high tech. Mind telling me where I can find the videos."

Rachael hesitated and Olivia worried she wouldn't tell her, but in truth Rachael wanted to find out what had happened as well, she just wanted to keep her job too.

"Security centre is on the second floor, room 230. You can take an access key off any of the security guards, they don't need them anymore."

"Thanks for your help," Olivia said as she started to walk away, "and I hope you'll be all right."

"Thanks," Rachael muttered, hoping the same.

"Oh, one more thing," Olivia exclaimed when she was almost out the door, "does your company happen to be a subsidiary of a larger corporation?"

Rachael hesitated again, but it was public knowledge, Olivia would find out eventually, "Yes, we're owned by Massive Dynamic."

Olivia shook her head in disbelief, "Of course you are. Thanks again."

While Olivia made her way to the second floor to check out the surveillance tapes Peter had just exited the staircase leading to the seventh floor. After checking the building schematics he had seen that the seventh floor was marked as Research and Development so he figured it was the best place to start if he wanted to figure out what was really going on at Symco Research. After walking down a pure white hallway for several feet he passed three bodies, all the same as the ones downstairs, several offices and then at the end of the hallway spotted a door that required an access card labeled Lab 3. He considered calling down to Olivia to get someone to open the door but knew a much faster way.

"Sorry for this, just trying to find out what happened here," Peter explained to the corpse of the security guard whose pockets he was patting down. In the front breast pocket he found the keycard which he swiped through the keypad and watched it turn green as the door unlocked. Stepping inside he found a large, sterile white lab. The room appeared to be divided into three different sections with dividers as if several scientists shared the lab and were working on different projects. Each of the three stations had a filing cabinet and two tables covered in computers, tools, microchips and machinery, only some of which Peter recognized. There were also two bodies in front of each workstation, all wearing lab coats and spilling blood from their eyes, ears and noses. Peter was tempted to examine the devices on the first two tables more closely to learn what they were for but he was drawn to the third workstation, mainly because it was practically empty. Whereas the other tables were covered in computer parts, files, paperwork and complete or dismantled machines, this table had only tools on it but no files or equipment even though two dead bodies lay in front of the station which would indicate they had been working on something.

"So what was sitting here?" Peter asked aloud as he moved towards the table to see if there were any clues as to what had been there before. As he moved around the body of a young female lab assistant though he noticed something odd and knelt down to get a closer look. Whereas every other body had a precise pool of blood around their head this woman's blood created more of a trail and extended further away from her body than it should. It was almost as if someone had moved her after death and smeared the blood across the floor. Having seen enough he knew he should report in. Peter tapped the earpiece as he had been shown and opened up a link with Olivia.

"Hey Dunham, I think I found something up here," Peter reported.

"What have you got?" she asked eagerly.

"I'm in one of the research labs on seven and I can't be sure but I think there's a piece of machinery missing, there's a table that looks like it's missing some equipment and files, there's no sign of what might have been in here though," he told her.

"An empty table doesn't tell us much Peter. Whatever was there could have been routinely moved, but it might mean something," Olivia replied, more than willing to take any lead she could get.

"Also, do you know if anyone else has been up here yet?" Peter added.

Olivia shook her head though he obviously could not see her, "As far as I know the other teams have only made it up to six. Why?"

"Then I think there was someone walking around in this lab, after these people died. There's a smudge in one of the blood pools around the body by the empty table. I think someone took something," Peter concluded.

Down on the second floor Olivia closed her eyes in disbelief and begged, "Peter, please don't tell me that someone might have killed a whole building full of people just so they could steal some new piece of technology."

"I don't like it either, but that's exactly what I'm saying," he hated to tell her.

"All right, I'm in the security centre now going over surveillance tapes, I'll check the seventh floor and let you know if I see anything. Good work though, let me know if you find anything else," she instructed.

"Sure thing," he said and was about to turn off his earpiece when she added:

"Oh and Hazmat cleared the scene of a biological threat. Looks like Walter was right, you can take off your gear if you want."

"Great, thanks," Peter said sarcastically as he signed off. He sometimes hated it when Walter was right, it made it that much harder to convince him when he was actually doing something crazy.

A few stories down Olivia sat in front of a huge security monitor. After a moment she found the feed to the seventh floor and the toggle switch that would rotate through all the cameras on that floor. It took a few clicks but she eventually found a readout that looked like a research lab and she knew it was the right one when she saw Peter entering the frame and removing his quarantine suit. So this was where she needed to look now she just had to go back. She hit rewind and watched as the tape swiftly moved backwards. She watched as Peter arrived in the lab in reverse but once it was the past the point where he had entered the tape showed only lifeless corpses for more than an hour's worth of film. After two minutes she reached the moment she was looking for. She let the tape rewind further than it needed to and regretted her decision. Instead of just watching the lone man who had come into the lab steal the device she had gone back to before the people in the room had died. Alone in the security centre she sat in a terrified stupor as she watched the muted scene play out before her.

The lab had six people in it, going about their business, writing, talking, working and then without warning all of them grabbed their heads as if they heard a loud noise. She could see they were screaming as blood poured from their eyes and ears, some even clutched at each other seemingly begging for help, but it didn't last long. Within moments all six of them had collapsed on the floor, bleeding, eyes gone: dead.

Olivia put a hand over her mouth and silently prayed for them. Then she saw him.

As casually as if he was shopping at the mall the man walked into the room, completely unperturbed by the bodies around him and moved around the lab, inspecting what was on each table until he stopped at the final one, picked up the large machine sitting there and the files that were with it and then left just as casually.

"Who are you?" she asked aloud as she rewound the tape slightly to watch again. The man had a medium build, was wearing all black, appeared to have brown hair but had no distinguishing features. He had a set of metal, heavy duty headphones covering his ears and she wondered if that was what had kept him alive while everyone else in the building bled to death. If nothing else he was ordinary in appearance, except for the fact that on his head was a plain black stocking cap, seemingly the same as the one worn by John Mosley, the man who had abducted Peter little more than a week before. It could just be a coincidence she knew, a lot of thieves wore ski hats, but it didn't feel that way. She saw the security monitors were hooked up to a printer on the far side of the room. She printed several stills of the footage, close ups of the man's face and what he had taken, and then left the room. In the hallway she met another agent and gave out instructions:

"I have the seventh floor camera paused on a man who came into this building after the attack. Get someone to track his movements backwards and find out how he got into this building and how he left, ASAP."

The agent nodded his understanding and went off to do what she had asked. Now that they both had their suits off Olivia called Peter on her cellphone instead of the earpiece.

"Hey, find anything?" he asked immediately as he had had no more revelations on the seventh floor.

"Yeah, you were right. I got footage of the guy coming into the lab and I have some still shots of what he stole. I'm going to go show them to our witness, Rachael, see if she can tell us what it is, but I doubt she'll talk. Why don't you come down here, see what you can make of it?"

"Sure, I'll be right down, I'm not coming up with anything up here anyway," he said, hung up and headed back for the stairs.

Olivia was making her way towards the quarantine tent when she passed another junior agent and handed her one of her close-ups of the man who had robbed the laboratory.

"Get copies of this made ASAP and have an APB put out for this guy, I don't know who he is but I want every law enforcement officer in the city looking for him."

"Yes Agent Dunham," the agent replied immediately and ran off. Olivia wondered when she got so accustomed to handing out orders.

But she didn't have time to ponder the subject. She had questions for Rachael Sutton. Barging into the little room they had set aside for her Olivia wasted no time in forcibly handing Rachael a picture of the man in question.

"Who is this?"

Rachael looked at it for a moment and shook her head, "I've never seen him before. Why, who is he?"

"He's the man who robbed your laboratory on the seventh floor moments after everyone in this building was killed. This is what he stole, mind telling me what it is," Olivia demanded more than asked.

Again, Rachael looked at the picture of the machine, it was bigger than a computer, was covered in wires and appeared partially dismantled. From the look on her face Olivia could tell that Rachael knew what it was and was not going to tell her.

"I can't say," was all Rachael gave her as she handed back the photo.

"Can't or won't?" Olivia pushed.

"It's the same difference," Rachael replied with a shrug.

"Everyone in the building may have died because of this thing, now what is it?" Olivia demanded again.

"Maybe you should ask your superiors," Rachael replied cryptically but Olivia could detect a trace of honesty in her answer.

"Why would I do that?"

Rachael had no answer to this and sat quietly but met Olivia's eyes.

"Okay, fine," Olivia said, not willing to play games at this point she stormed out of the tent and back into the lobby. Sighing in frustration she was about to look for Broyles to see if he could shed any light on this situation when she spotted Peter first, emerging from the stairwell by the elevators. He immediately moved towards her and after a glance around the lobby asked:

"Where's Walter?"

"Some agents took him back to the lab with two of the bodies, hopefully he'll know something by the time we're done here," she told him and then handed him a photograph. "Here, you were right, that man was in the lab after everyone died. I have someone working on tracking how he got in and out."

"Great, but I don't recognize him, I don't think I can help," Peter said handing her back the photo.

"Well how about this one. That's what he stole from the lab. Can you tell what it might be?"

Peter took the offered picture and his eyes grew wide with recognition.

"What? What is this?" Peter asked, his voice becoming strangely deep and dangerous.

"I was hoping you could tell me, our witness won't tell me anything," Olivia replied. "Do you know what it is?"

But Peter would not answer her, his anger was building, "That girl who works here, is she in that room? Is she back there?"

"Yeah, but …"

Even before Olivia answered Peter was charging back to the quarantine room where Rachael Sutton was still waiting.

"What is this?" he demanded, shoving the picture in her face, "Where did you get it?"

"I can't say," Rachael repeated but Peter persisted.

"Where!? Did you build this thing? Is this your doing?" he shouted, so furious for answers that Olivia had to reign him in.

"Peter, back off!" she yelled, grabbing his arm but it did nothing to calm him down.

"I want to know where you got this, what was it doing in your lab?" he demanded again still in Rachael's personal space.

"As I told Agent Dunham, you'll have to ask your superiors," Rachael told him in an attempt to please him.

Peter's eyes widened in shock, "Our superiors? What are you talking about?"

Olivia had enough of Peter's anger though and forcibly separated him from Rachael, "Peter, that's enough. Now calm down and tell me what the hell this thing is."

Laughing mirthlessly Peter shoved the photo back into Olivia's hands, "This ladies and gentlemen is a torture device."

That was not what Olivia had expected to hear and she examined the picture again, "How can you tell?"

There was a hesitation as Peter became more somber and answered quietly, "Because a person tends to remember all the machines they've been tortured with."

"You mean this is …"

Olivia didn't have to finish. Peter nodded, "Sure is. That's the machine that tortures you and reads your mind. And they had it in their lab so I want to know, did you build it or did you steal it?"

Rachael Sutton's eyes were fixed on the floor. Knowing the device had been used on him, she could no longer look Peter in the eye, but she would also be answering no more questions as Olivia and Peter could both tell.

"Let's go talk to Broyles," Olivia suggested calmly. Peter had to grit his teeth to keep from lashing out at Rachael again and nodded sharply.

"Fine."

Then he stormed out. Olivia sighed, she almost hoped Broyles would have no idea what she was talking about.

She doubted it.

* * *

In a seemingly worn down warehouse across town the man in the black stocking cap climbed a flight of stairs leading to a plain wooden door. Putting his key in the lock he pushed the door open. On the other side was a pristine laboratory complete with test tubes, machinery, assistants and white sterile walls. The assistants wandering about, working on their own pieces of the project paid the man no mind as he strolled by purposefully, package held under his arm. He was headed for the far side of the lab where another door led to a spacious office. He knocked quickly and let himself in.

"Doctor Connell, the package you requested," he said as he placed the machine on the man's desk. The man behind the desk was in his late fifties, graying but with a full head of hair and eyes that were as alert and sharp as a man half his age. He smiled at his operative as he inspected the machine.

"Ah, the Reader. Excellent work, hopefully they haven't done anything irreparable to it," he noted as he looked at the panels that had been removed by the scientists that had been working on understanding the piece of technology.

"I'll leave that to you to find out," the operative replied and then placed a file on the desk as well. "That was with it at the lab, it's the FBI's report on the device. It mentions something very interesting, something we've been looking for."

This got Connell's attention, who immediately started flipping through the report, "Oh yes, and what might that be?"

"The FBI has a Reader of their own. A human one."

"What? That's impossible, we've been working on that technology for years, it's impossible to stabilize," Dr. Connell exclaimed, but also knew his operatives were not ones to lightly report on such things.

"They took a different approach. He picks things up subconsciously, doesn't even know he's doing it," the operative explained.

"Interesting, that could stabilize the input received, make the mind more able to process it. We have to be sure though. Test him but keep your distance, we don't need the FBI breathing down our necks just yet. If he passes, bring him in, I'm very eager to meet this boy. What's his name?" Dr. Connell asked as the operative started to leave.

The man half smirked, "Peter Bishop, son of Dr. Walter Bishop."

Dr. Connell smiled as well, "Hmm, that does explain a lot doesn't it? Good work, let me know how it goes."

With a nod the operative left and Dr. Connell reposed back into chair, "Oh Walter, have you done our work for us again? Either way, I'm very excited to meet this boy of yours."

TBC

And now a quick note to my fab reviewers:

IguanaMom – Good to see another non-shipper. It's not that I can't see them ever together but it just seems a little early in the series to put them together. She's still really hung up on John after all. I'll try to update again soon.

Rainbowvillain – Thanks for the review, I'm glad you enjoy Walter, he's very hard to write. I have to look up the technical terms for everything I want him to say.

Zaedah – Thanks for letting me know the specific parts you liked, that always helps to figure out what works in a fic. I enjoyed the yogurt part a lot too.

Forensicsgirl02 – Thanks for writing but there will be no romantic relationship between Peter and Olivia, just friendship and some hurt/comfort later. Sorry, hope that's enough.

Alama Girl – Hurt/comfort really is the best, it's coming in the next chappy full strength. Thanks for the well rounded review.

Penguino3782 – Glad I got the Peter and Walter stuff going in the right direction. It's not until you write it that you realize how complex this relationship really is. Thanks for the review.

Trinity Day – Your review was extremely flattering, thank you for putting some time into it, it's very much appreciated. I try to make my stories well rounded and detailed and it's great to know people enjoy that. Thanks again.

Silver Dog Demon – There won't be a romantic relationship between Peter and Olivia but I plan a lot of friendship stuff to develop and the Peter angst is coming, I'm very excited for it as well.

Arem – My first review! Thanks for writing, I was honored to be the first fringe story that grasped you.

Many thanks to my other reviewers as well, you all keep me writing: MrsFitzgerald52, doc, livingdarkness, sonya13, ShadowWolfDagger, lalunafour, midnight'sdawn, little.tel, Ethereal Journey, blackbriems.

Come back next time for angst! Robin.


	3. Testing the Reader

Sorry this took so long, I rushed out chapter 2 so I could get it out before The Cure aired as it appeared that my fic had some similarities to it, and I did not want to be accused of stealing. But Wow, I feel like you might just be enjoying this story. Thanks so much for all the ridiculously wonderful reviews. Here's some angst for you all as a treat. Enjoy.

Remember, set a week after "The Arrival".

Trust

By Robinyj

It was no easy task for Olivia to catch up with Peter after he stormed out of the quarantine tent. His anger was making him unable to think and though he was rushing off in a hurry he apparently had nowhere to go as Olivia found him pacing outside in front of the building.

"Where the hell is Broyles?" he demanded when he saw her as he could not spot the senior agent anywhere.

"We'll find him all right, and we'll talk to him, but Peter, you have to calm down."

He rolled his eyes at her remark but she continued anyway.

"Look, I know you're upset and I don't pretend to understand what you're feeling right now. I know you want to find out about this machine and what it was doing here but if you go talk to him when you're all worked up like this he isn't going to tell you anything, he's just going to have you removed from the scene," she explained as calmly as possible as she was getting dizzy from Peter's pacing.

For his part, Peter finally stopped moving and took a visible deep breath and then forced a smile in Olivia's direction, "Fine, I'm calm."

She smiled, not believing him at all but knowing it was the best she would get, "Sure you are."

Walking past him she got the attention of another agent with a clipboard who seemed to be organizing things at some level, "Excuse me, can you tell me where Phillip Broyles is?"

"He left for the Federal Building about twenty minutes ago," the agent replied.

"Thanks," she said and turned back to Peter. "He's at the Federal Building."

"Great, let's go, I'll drive," Peter exclaimed as he held out his hand for the car keys. Olivia laughed in his face.

"No, you won't. You're lucky I'm letting you come and not sending you back to the lab," Olivia informed him. Peter was extremely tempted to argue but he knew how stubborn Olivia could be and she could very easily arrange it so he couldn't meet with Broyles at all, so he followed her obediently to the car.

Once Olivia was in the car she watched as Peter climbed into the passenger seat and buckled his seatbelt. She could see and feel the tension radiating off of him and was mildly concerned. Most people never went through what Peter had been through the week before, being kidnapped and tortured for information, it must have been terrible. Even she couldn't imagine it fully. The worst part was that Peter didn't even know what it had all been about – didn't know what the Beacon did or who the people were that were willing to kill to find it. Lucky for her it had been his need for answers that was keeping Peter in Boston now, helping them, but now it looked like they might have a lead on what had been done to Peter and why.

As she started the car Olivia secretly feared that if Peter got the answers he was looking for he would no longer have any motivation to stay.

* * *

Several blocks away a plain black car sat parked facing the police tape strewn across the street. In the driver's seat sat the Operative, he had taken off his black stocking cap and replaced it with a pair of sunglasses and a fake beard. Flipping open his binoculars he zoomed in on the crime scene and took stock of the individuals milling around. It was only a few moments before his eye was caught by a head of blond hair. He smiled as he saw his target speaking animatedly with the blond agent. Peter Bishop appeared tense, agitated and angry. The Operative noted his bruised face and bandaged wrists and flashed back to the FBI report he had read only an hour earlier – Peter Bishop had already had an experience with the Reader, and if the test proceeded as planned he would meet with it once again. Picking up the plain looking metal rod in the seat next to him he contemplated performing the test now, but there were too many police around, even with the cover of several blocks of distance there was no reason to chance it. Looking through his binoculars again the Operative saw the target and who he assumed to be Olivia Dunham climb into a vehicle and leave the crime scene. Putting the device back in its case for the moment, he turned over his own engine and prepared to follow them.

* * *

The first five minutes were completely silent. No radio, no phone conversations, no eye contact. Eventually Peter's emotional wall became too much for Olivia and she attempted to cross the barrier of silent tension they had both created.

"Peter, I know you're upset about this device being involved somehow in this case, and with good reason, but please, just listen to whatever it is Broyles has to say before losing your cool," Olivia requested as gently as possible. She would readily acknowledge that Peter was brilliant and also surprisingly comfortable in the field, however, what he was not was patient and cool. His anger and passion sometimes got the best of him, as she had seen. He was usually only set off by things involving his father, but she had a feeling he could be triggered by other things as well. Things such as torture devices that had been used on him and were being tentatively linked back to the organization he was currently working for.

After a moment of clicking his fingernails against the passenger door handle Peter nodded slowly, "I'm cool Olivia, I just need answers. That machine, it read my thoughts, probed my mind somehow, but you know, with all the crazy shit we've seen the last few weeks I could even live with that. But the fact that it could pull information from me, that I didn't know I knew, now that really bothers me. Not to mention the fact that Massive Dynamic had it in their lab and might have gotten it from the FBI directly, it's all just kind of messing with my head right now you know, making me wonder if we're sure we're working for the right side here."

Peter's monologue was mostly said to the window but Olivia hung on every word of the soft confession and felt confident that at least Peter would remain calm when they talked to Broyles.

"Like I said," Peter added, "I just want answers."

"Okay," Olivia agreed. "We'll see what we can do. I think we both have a lot of questions."

"There's the understatement of the year," Peter laughed mirthlessly as Olivia turned a corner. "Here's my first one, where are you going?"

"Harvard is on the way to the Federal Building. Walter might have found something by now," Olivia explained.

"You said we were going to talk to Broyles," Peter accused, his temper rising slightly.

But Olivia would have none of that and shot him the look that told him she was in charge, "We are, but we still have a case to work and we're dealing with something completely unknown that killed those people, something that I would like to know more about if possible. Besides, this way we can exchange information if we have to, what we know for what Broyles knows."

Peter clearly didn't like that he would have to wait, or deal with his father in his agitated state, but said only, "Fine."

Olivia knew that that was the best she was going to get.

Fifteen minutes later they pulled into the parking lot in front of the Harvard lab; neither of them noticed the black car simultaneously pulling into the parking lot across the courtyard. Quickly putting the car into park the Operative pulled out his binoculars once more even as his other hand reached for the rod-like device in the passenger seat. Through the high powered lenses he could see Peter Bishop slam shut the door of Agent Dunham's vehicle and start to head up the stairs of the building. It wouldn't take them long to get inside and out of sight and the Operative could not risk getting closer to keep an eye on them – it had to be done now.

Putting down the binoculars the Operative double-checked that he had changed the settings on the device from this morning so that it would now transmit on a much higher, more specific frequency. He had been assured several times by the scientists at the lab that at this setting the device couldn't hurt him, in fact he wouldn't even be able to tell that it was on, but nonetheless, he saw no reason to take any chances and quickly fitted the protective earphones on his head. Bringing up his binoculars once more he spotted his target and pressed the button to activate the device. The reaction was instantaneous.

On the top of the steps in front of the Harvard lab Peter had his arms crossed as he waited for Olivia to catch up with him. He thought he had made his eagerness to get to the Federal building obvious, but judging by Olivia's snail pace walk up the steps she clearly hadn't noticed his haste or didn't care.

"Any time now Olivia. Please at least tell me we're going to be quick in there because I don't know how much of my father I can handle right now," Peter pleaded with her.

Of course, Olivia had noticed his agitation and eagerness and had been conducting tests of her own, "I know Peter, we'll just get an update and get out. And I realize you're in a hurry, I was testing you to see how patient you would be when we finally talk to Broyles."

Of course she was, Peter thought to himself as he smiled mirthlessly, "Testing me, great. So I failed pretty miserably, huh?"

"You could say that," Olivia replied as she continued to move at an alarmingly slow rate to bother him and hadn't even made it all the way up the stairs yet.

"Well it wouldn't be … Ah! What is that sound?" Peter's response was abruptly cut short as a high pitched shrill rattled through his brain.

Olivia's pace finally quickened as she watched Peter suddenly clutch his head and bend over in pain.

"Peter, what's wrong?"

Clenching his eyes shut, Peter could barely grit out through his teeth, "That noise … high pitched … hurts like a bitch."

Olivia scanned the campus quickly, they were drawing a lot of attention but no one else in sight was clutching their head, "Peter, I don't hear anything … no one else hears anything."

"Ah God!" he yelled as he fell to his knees before Olivia could grab him. The pressure was increasing, unbearably tearing through his whole nervous system. His hands were pressing so hard against his head he thought he might crush his own skull but there was no blocking out that high pitched ringing that was ripping his mind apart.

"Peter!" Olivia exclaimed as she dropped down beside him and tried to take his arm to haul him back up, "Hold on, I'll get you inside, Walter will figure something out."

"Shut it off!" Peter begged as he pulled free from her grasp and collapsed onto the ground, moaning in agony with his head now tucked between his knees and chest in a vain attempt to further block out the noise that would not be stopped.

For her part, Olivia Dunham was just as scared as Peter; she had seen these symptoms before, on the video feed from Symco Research. She knew at any moment Peter's eyes could burst and his brain could melt through his ears and nose, something she was desperate not to see happen. She wasn't sure if she could handle the death of another person she cared about so soon after John. But Walter and Hazmat had all agreed, the deaths at Symco had not been caused by a disease or a virus or chemical – then how could Peter be affected now, hours later? If she wanted answers she would have to do it now, while he was still alive, though still writhing in pain.

"Peter, we have to get you inside, Walter will know what to do. Let me see your eyes, are you bleeding?"

When she tried to pull him up she found it impossible to move him, he was a deadweight and she was also gripped by a need to know if she was dealing with the same unknown factor that had killed the people at Symco. She had to know if Peter was dying.

"Peter, let me see your eyes!" she yelled again as she tried to pull his arms away from his face. He was still screaming in agony and his body had tightened in on itself as much as possible in response. Her heart lurched when her fingers were briefly able to probe through his defenses and she felt moisture on his face.

_Please no_, she prayed, but aloud she was an FBI agent, professional and in charge, "Peter, we have to get inside now! Please!"

Even she had to admit to herself, that last part had not been professional, it had sounded desperate and personal, but she didn't care, she was not just going to stand there and watch this happen. Grabbing both Peter's arm she stood and pulled his rigid body up with her, prepared to frog march him down to Walter's lab if she had to, however at that moment, with a final cry of agony Peter's tense body went completely slack in her arms and he fell limply to the hard concrete once more.

Olivia's mind jumped to the worst possible conclusion.

"No. Peter? Peter!"

He had landed facing away from her. She ignored the people gathering around and knelt down beside him, terrified to turn him over but needing to know for sure. With one hand she grasped a shoulder and slowly rolled him towards her.

No blood.

Relief flooded her and she fell forward with a sigh.

"Thank god."

After taking a deep breath she sat up straight again and looked closer. There was no sign of blood pooling from his eyes, ears or nose and she could see he was breathing shallowly. She put a hand on his neck and felt his pulse racing then threaded her fingers upwards and wiped away the moisture on his face. It wasn't blood as she had feared when she first felt it, just tears of pain. Is that why he was unconscious now? Had he passed out from the pain? If that was the case then she knew the attack might not be over and Peter could wake up at any moment in just as much agony as he had been in a moment before. She knew that she couldn't let that happen and that she had stalled long enough. Before she had a chance to try to lift him herself a twenty-something student who looked like he probably played football approached her.

"Is he all right? Do you need some help? We can call an ambulance," the student offered.

Olivia appreciated his concern but did not think a conventional hospital would be able to help right now. Besides, Walter was closer.

"Actually I need to get him inside, thank you. There's a doctor working in a lab in the basement, he should be able to help," she explained.

"Sure, let me give you a hand," the jock said, bending down to take Peter's other arm.

"Thank you, lift on three. One, two …"

"Ugh…"

Before they could lift him Peter's head started to loll on its own and he groaned in pain.

"Wait, I think he's waking up. Give us a minute?" she requested of the student, knowing she had to talk to Peter but could most likely still use the jock's help.

"Yeah, I'll be right here," the young man said and backed away a few steps.

Olivia's full attention turned to Peter as she slapped his cheek lightly, "Peter? Can you hear me? Are you awake? Are you in pain?"

Peter's eyes blinked several times, closed and then opened again slowly with another groan, "Liv? What happened?"

More than anything, she wished she knew.

"I don't know. We're at the lab. We were talking and then you grabbed your head. You said there was a high pitched noise and then you passed out. Do you remember?"

Peter's eyes were closed tightly again but he nodded, "Yeah, unfortunately I do."

"Do you still hear it?" From the fact that he was talking she thought he probably didn't but she had to be sure.

"No, the sound's gone. Pain's still there, but I don't hear anything," he replied. His voice was tight, strained and quiet.

"All right, I'm going to get Walter to take a look at you, see if we can figure this out. Can you stand?" She started to get up as she asked the question, gently pulling on one of Peter's arms as she did.

"Only if you tell me that you did not just say that you're going to let my father examine me," he groaned as he oh so slowly rolled upward into a standing position with Olivia never releasing his arm in case things should go wrong.

"Peter I think you and I can both agree that what just happened wasn't a …" she paused as she looked at the many faces within earshot of their conversation and carefully chose her words, "traditional medical problem. We have to tell your father, he might know something."

Peter held up a hand to quiet her protests, "Yeah, yeah I know, all right, let's go. Just … talk less loud."

She nodded in response, guessing that his headache was made worse by noise. Her silence didn't last long as Peter took a step forward and wobbled precariously.

"Whoa, easy!" she said, pulling him up straight once more. The student who had offered aid earlier came up on Peter's other side and grabbed his flailing arm to steady him completely.

"Okay, I may have to retract my previous statement on the walking part," he apologized, eyes shut in a vain attempt to ward off his headache and dizziness.

"Well don't worry, Peter this is … uh, I'm sorry …"

"Frank," the jock supplied.

"Frank, he's going to help us get you downstairs," Olivia explained and started to usher Peter forward.

However, Peter didn't want to move just yet and lowered his face closer to the FBI agent's, "Olivia, I'm sure you can get me there safely by yourself."

Olivia's lips tightened. Peter had trust issues, she knew that. He probably always had since losing his father at a young age, and having to live with the mentally unstable man before that. Those issues had undoubtedly been made worse by his abduction the week before and for that reason Olivia understood why Peter would be hesitant to let a stranger help him, especially while in a vulnerable position like he was now. However, Olivia was also in charge of his health and safety, and for the moment she had to protect his physical well being over his mental health.

"Well I'm not. We have to go down three flights of stairs before we get to the lab and I'm not risking you taking a nosedive down any of them, so you're going to let us both help you," she explained forcefully but with an obvious hint of concern.

"All right," Peter conceded, most likely too tired and in too much pain to argue as much as usual but he still had the barest minimum of his trademark sarcasm. "But I am not holding Frank's hand."

"Deal," Olivia agreed through a small smirk. "Come on."

Walking slowly, head down, Peter took his first tentative steps forward. This time Olivia never released his arm and walked directly beside him. Frank was being watchful, barely half a step away and ready for anything but was considerate enough not to touch Peter unless he had to. Their progress was slow but eventually they made it inside.

Across the courtyard the Operative lowered his binoculars with a satisfied smile. After taking off his earphones and putting away his equipment he took out his cell phone and speed dialed. The line was picked up quickly.

"Report," Dr. Connell demanded, wasting no time when it came to business.

"The target passed the test. Not only did he detect the frequency he reacted very strongly to it. Peter Bishop is a Reader," the Operative reported briskly.

"Excellent, bring him in, I don't care how. No head trauma, anything else is fine."

"Understood," the Operative replied as he hung up. He enjoyed when he was given free reign on his assignments, unfortunately he knew his target could recognize him so would have to take a backseat for most of this project. That was unimportant however, he had other ways. Flipping open his cell phone once more he dialed a familiar number.

"Yes."

"I have a job, you'll need a partner," he explained briefly.

"That shouldn't be a problem," the voice on the other end responded.

"Good, I'll meet you at the usual spot with the specifics in twenty minutes."

The Operative hung up before he heard his colleague's response, enjoying how it gave him the power in the situation. Putting the phone away he finally started his car and left the university campus to meet with his associate who would obtain their target. Suffice it to say, he did not envy Peter Bishop for the future they were planning for him.

TBC

I don't love this chapter for some reason but it's got lots of h/c which is what I am really going for. I think the characters are just a little off compared to what I did in chapter 2, I will try to remedy this next time. I am unfortunately rushed for time tonight and don't have a lot of time for personal responses. I will say, to IguanaMom and Alamogirl, thanks for pointing out my now incredibly obvious mistake about Jean. Of course she's a girl cow, how ridiculous of me! I think I just had the idea that it was a science joke and the cow was Gene, like a human gene, but that is of course the male version and the cow would be girl. I fixed it now, so thanks again.

Silver Dog Demon – your speculation and enthusiasm in your review was fantastic! Thank you. Obviously I've answered somewhat how they test Peter's ability, there will be more about that later. As for all your other theories, they seem good, maybe I'll steal a couple. Lol. We'll just have to find out together. Thanks for the review.

Ladytrekkie – I love hearing from people who agree that Peter and Olivia shouldn't just automatically be pushed together because they are the male and female main characters. I don't even spot any real chemistry between them, I am enjoying them as partners though and will be continuing to write them as such. Thanks for the long review, I enjoy hearing specifics of what people like.

To all my other reviewers, I am incredibly thankful for you taking the time to review and apologize for not having the time to personally thank you all properly. Until next time, I hope you enjoyed this installment and there will be more Peter angst to come. Later, Robin!


	4. Mr Bishop please come with us

Super long chapter, I hope you all enjoy it! To my reviewers, you are all amazing people, special thanks are at the end of the chapter. Really, your appreciation and reviews make my life.

Remember, set a week after "The Arrival". I own nothing.

Trust

By Robinyj

After they had made it down the final flight of stairs that led to the secret basement laboratory Olivia thanked Frank for his help and insisted she could get Peter the rest of the way. For his part Peter was mostly walking on his own power, albeit with his eyes closed as they were clenched in pain, but Olivia was confident they could make it to the lab alone and without having to expose a civilian to its location and secrets.

"Okay Peter, almost there," she said in an encouraging whisper.

"I think you said that two flights of stairs ago," Peter countered but had to take Olivia's word for it. When he opened his eyes the world seemed to shift beneath his feet making him nauseous so even though he could walk he was keeping his eyes closed and trusting Olivia to lead him.

"Come on, we're at the door. I'm sure Walter can figure this out," Olivia assured him but Peter just huffed. At least she hoped Walter knew something as she was worried that something was seriously wrong with Peter. She knew that the younger Bishop was an expert at hiding his pain, both emotional and physical (he hadn't complained once all week about his ribs) so the fact that he was so openly in pain at the moment indicated to her that whatever was going on, it was bad.

"Yeah, sure, I think my headache just got worse from hearing that."

Olivia made no response as she was pushing open the door to the lab for them. As they walked inside she left a guiding hand on Peter's arm and scoured the room. One of the two dead bodies that had been sent over with Walter from Symco was uncovered and appeared to have been examined already – the other was still in its body bag. She didn't see Walter anywhere, but Astrid was working at one of the computers and turned when she heard the door open.

"Hey guys," she greeted them automatically before she took in Peter's sluggish, bent over form and forehead creased with pain, then added. "What happened?"

"Long story," Olivia answered curtly. "Would you mind clearing everything off that couch, I think Peter needs to lie down."

"Yeah, sure," Astrid agreed, quickly jumping out of her chair to remove the files that had piled up on the cushions in front of the lab's television.

Meanwhile, Olivia continued to lead Peter across the lab to the couch, "Okay, up three stairs and then we're there."

"Fantastic," Peter mumbled through clenched teeth. "The couch at the hotel wasn't bad enough, now I get one that smells like popcorn and cow."

Olivia chose to ignore his remark as she knew his headache was probably just making him snarky. Despite his protests though he sighed in relief as Olivia lowered him onto the cushions then threw an arm over his face as he lay on his back, finally able to rest.

"What's going on?" Astrid asked again as she finished moving the files to a nearby table.

Olivia noticed Peter's wince even underneath his arm. "I'm not sure. Try to keep your voice down though …"

"Hello Olivia! Is Peter with you?"

Olivia and Astrid both turned when they heard Walter's voice bellow from across the lab as he appeared from around a corner with some surgical tools in hand.

"I could use his help in dissecting these bodies," he continued to yell as he came over, to which Peter responded by groaning and pushing his hands over his ears.

"Uh … Peter's right here," Olivia said as she moved to quickly fill the gap between them so Walter wouldn't have to yell again. "You have to keep your voice down though Walter, he's got an unusually bad headache."

"A headache? How strange. Peter, did something happen? Are you all right? Is it more of a migraine or are you hungover in some way?" Walter asked, still quite far across the room and not grasping the idea of using his quiet voice yet.

"Yes Walter, that's it, I somehow managed to get drunk AND hungover since you last saw me two hours ago!" Peter yelled back in frustration and annoyance before burying his head as far into the couch cushions as they would go in an attempt to block out the pain he had just caused himself by yelling.

"He's always been so surly when he isn't feeling well … as a child he wouldn't take his medicine unless it was crumbled into a bowl of ice cream … chocolate I believe, or perhaps strawberry," Walter whispered to Olivia before returning his attention back to his son. "Now, have these happened before Peter? I could make you something for the pain. I believe I have the ingredients for codeine … I don't think we have any ice cream though."

As Walter rambled he approached his son to examine him. Peter was too tired to bother moving when Walter checked his pulse but as his father tried to force open his eyes to check his pupils Peter had to protest.

"Walter, stop it!" he ordered, batting the man's hand away and hiding his face under his arm once more. "Olivia, please get him away from me."

Coming up from behind him Olivia took Walter by the shoulder to gently pull him away but then unfortunately replied, "Peter, you should really let Walter examine you, we have to try to figure out what's wrong in case it happens again."

"What exactly did happen?" Astrid asked for a third time with a hint of frustration. Olivia looked down at Peter who was not moving and clearly had no intention of responding to the question and was leaving it up to her.

"We left the crime scene about half an hour ago. We were just coming up the steps of the building outside, talking, all of a sudden Peter doubled over in pain. He said there was a high pitched noise that was hurting his head," Olivia supplied.

Walter interrupted, his fingers gesturing excitedly, "But you heard nothing?"

She shook her head, "No. Neither did anyone else, I looked around campus, no one else seemed to be responding to a noise. The pain seemed to keep getting worse, within a few seconds Peter couldn't even talk anymore. I tried to get him inside but he passed out before I could move him. When he woke up he said the sound was gone but he still had a headache then a student helped me get him down here."

"Interesting, very interesting," Walter muttered, then leaned down close to his son's ear, finally remembering to whisper. "Peter, son, have you ever had an attack like this before?"

"An attack where a loud ringing sound makes me pass out, no, definitely not. The pain on the other hand …"

When Peter didn't finish his sentence he had the full attention of the other three people in the room.

"What about the pain?" Olivia pushed.

Peter sighed, clearly not enjoying talking as his head pounded, "Well, not that I like to categorize pain, but what I felt, in my head, kind of reminded me of what that device felt like that that guy used on me when he was hauling information out of my head. It was the same general feeling of agony."

Olivia pulled the picture out of her pocket of the machine and handed it to Astrid and Walter to look at, "That's the machine he's talking about, it's the one John Mosley used on Peter last week to read his thoughts."

"How'd you get a picture of it?" Astrid asked.

"Symco Research was studying it, they had it in one of their labs. We found surveillance footage of a man walking in after everyone died and stealing the device back. We think it was the target of the attack," Olivia explained.

"They killed a building full of people to get one piece of equipment back?" Astrid asked in shock at the lengths these people would go to.

"It seems that way. Walter," Olivia said the man's name clearly but he hadn't turned to look at her. "Walter!"

The scientist snapped out of his thoughts and met her eyes, "Yes, my dear."

"I have to know, what happened to Peter just now, could it somehow be related to what happened at Symco Research? Could he have been infected with something at the crime scene?"

Walter tapped his fingers on his lips before answering, "A very good question, very good. I was wondering the same thing myself but you see from what I have gathered so far those people could not have been killed by a disease or chemical, it was a targeted, simultaneous attack. It had to be a device of some kind that could cause the cells of the brain to break apart from each other if you will, or be disrupted in some way."

"So that couldn't be what happened to Peter outside," Olivia surmised from Walter's explanation.

"If he was the only one affected, then no, you see the device would attack without prejudice, there would be no way to specify it to one person and if no one else outside responded as you said then it couldn't … unless."

Walter grabbed the picture of the machine from Astrid's hands and moved across the room to formulate his thoughts for a moment.

"Here comes our daily dose of crazy ladies and gentlemen," Peter muttered from the couch. "I know I will regret asking, but unless what Walter."

"Unless, my boy, unless whatever was used on those people at that building was based off the same technology used to read your mind," Walter hypothesized excitedly. "You … you said the pain was similar correct? Then the first machine last week could have somehow changed your mind's receptive abilities, making you more susceptible to this second device in some way. It is very possible then, that this sound Peter heard did in fact exist and you Olivia heard it as well but your mind could not process the sound as it has not been altered by this first device."

"So … your theory is that Peter's brain is now different in some way than almost anyone else's making him able to hear frequencies that no one else can hear," Olivia tried to clarify.

"Kind of like a dog," Astrid threw in.

"Thanks for that," Peter replied sarcastically, but his eyes were now wide open as he listened to his father's, not all that crazy, explanation and was worried by it.

"Yes, exactly, a canine's tympanic membrane makes it able to hear frequencies higher than the human brain can process just as Peter apparently is now able to detect this device when set to a certain level though no one else can," Walter theorized.

"So whatever this device is, it has a special pain frequency that only I can hear? That's just fantastic, let's hope they're done testing it out then," Peter moaned.

"That may have been precisely what they were doing," Walter guessed. "If they somehow knew that Peter had had this machine used on him that read his thoughts they may have chosen him to test this frequency on the second device used earlier today."

"So, this could have been a deliberate attack on Peter?" Olivia asked. But Walter shook his head.

"I would say more like an unfortunately painful test. If they wanted Peter dead I have no doubts he would be at the moment."

"Okay, that's a lot to take in," Olivia said gravely, not at all enthused about what she had learned, but there was still work to do. "Walter, I know it's asking a lot but I need you to find out as much as you can about how this device works, exactly. Here, this is the man that broke into the Research lab, he appears to have some kind of protective earpieces that might have protected him from this device you're talking about. I need to know if we can make our own."

Walter took the picture of the man and studied it – Olivia could swear she could see his mind starting to swirl already.

"Yes, a defensive weapon. I will see what I can do," he promised.

"Thanks," Olivia replied then pulled Astrid to the side for a moment. "Astrid I'm going to need you to stay here all day, especially since Peter can't exactly watch out for Walter right now. Keep me updated on what he's doing and how he's doing it. Also, let me know if Peter gets any better or worse. I don't like any of this."

"No problem. Where are you going?" Astrid asked.

"I have a meeting with Broyles about this," Olivia answered holding up the picture of the mind-reading machine. "Take care of them."

"Always do," Astrid replied and waved as Olivia left the lab.

Across the room Walter still had not strayed far from the couch where Peter had resumed resting with his arm thrown over his eyes.

"Son?" he asked softly.

Peter was in too much pain to properly assess the concern in his father's voice and replied almost irritated, "Yes, Walter."

"Are you comfortable? Can I get you anything?" he asked, almost hesitantly.

This time Peter could clearly hear the concern Walter had for him. His frustration died slightly and he decided to appease his father's need to help and said softly, "Aspirin."

"Oh, I see," Walter said after a moment, sounding almost hurt. "I'll go get her."

Peter opened his eyes, confused and watched as Walter stood and shouted, "Aspirin, Peter would like to see you for a moment."

"For god's sake Walter, her name is Astrid! Astrid!" Peter yelled and then explained slowly. "I would like some aspirin, for my headache, which is now much, much worse."

"Oh yes of course," Walter said, brightening as he understood. "Aspirin, yes, right away. Are you sure you wouldn't like something stronger? I believe we still have some LSD from our experiment with the tank. I find it an extremely … potent pain reliever."

"Astrid!" Peter yelled out for help, not able to deal with Walter right now with his head pounding so bad he thought it might break open.

"Aspirin, right here, got it," she assured him as she came over with a pill bottle and a glass of water.

"Thank you," he said with extreme gratitude.

"Come on Walter, why don't we let Peter rest for awhile," she suggested. Then swallowing, she put on a brave face as she offered, "I can help you with your … dissections."

As he was finally left alone in relative quiet Peter sighed and rolled over. That woman was a godsend in more ways than one. Exhausted from the pain, he fell asleep shortly after this thought had gone through his head, but not before he could briefly wonder – What the hell did that machine do to me?

* * *

Olivia had to admit to herself, she was not being a safe driver. As she tried to force her car through the packed streets of Boston her mind was not focused on the road as it should have been but on the strange events that had plagued her morning. Any day where she had to investigate the deaths of hundreds of people was already a bad one in her book, but the complications that had arisen already – Symco Research having the mind reading device in their lab, Peter being attacked or tested somehow, and if he had been then the man from the surveillance tapes could have been on campus at Harvard while she was there and she hadn't even tried to look for him.

Just thinking about it almost made her run a red light.

Braking quickly, she forced herself to breathe as she came to a stop at the light and waited.

Just breathe Dunham, she thought, you'll find this guy, all of Boston is looking for him.

She was slightly shaken by nearly running the light and when it turned green again she went forward cautiously, being more meticulous about her driving.

Get to the Federal Building alive, she told herself, and then you can get some answers from Broyles.

Answers. The thought made her want to laugh. She knew she was likely just going to be leaving with more questions.

* * *

People got out of her way as she marched through the halls of the Federal Building, clearly on a mission. She knew the way to Broyles's office by heart and though she saw he was on the phone she didn't wait to enter. Bursting through the door she stood confidently with her anger pulsing to come out.

"I'll call you back," Broyles said to whoever was on the other end of the line, then addressed her, slowly. "Dunham, do you have something to report? I've been trying to call you for almost an hour."

"Sorry sir," she replied with defiance, not regret, "I just really thought you needed to hear this in person."

"All right, go ahead," Broyles offered, sitting down.

Olivia remained standing but removed a picture from the file folder she had brought in with her and slid it across the desk.

"That man killed the employees of Symco Research. I have an APB out on him and his picture's circulating. We have surveillance footage of him walking into one of the labs after everyone died and stealing a piece of equipment. This equipment."

Her voice was tight with reined in anger as she slid another picture across the desk and waited for Broyles's reaction. As he picked up the photo he said nothing and gave nothing away.

"I didn't know what it was," she started with fake cheer, then her voice dropped to a low suspicious tone, "Peter sure did though. Can you explain that? How a private lab somehow got a piece of technology that I figured would be in our possession if it was possible to find?"

Broyles met her eye, dropped the picture and decided not to play games with her, "Symco Research had it because we gave it to them to study, we needed to know how it worked."

"We gave it to them? Homeland Security turned over government evidence to a private company for research? I'm sorry, but that just smells rotten in a whole lot of ways," Olivia accused.

Broyles's eyes closed in annoyance, but he continued to try to be civil, "As you know, Massive Dynamic, who owns Symco, is privileged to certain information about the Pattern, a good deal of which they learned completely on their own. We have an agreement with them, an information exchange, it works both ways."

"Even if we agreed to tell them certain things we learned, actually handing evidence over to them gives them all the power. They wouldn't necessarily have to tell us anything they found," Olivia pointed out.

"Perhaps, but I didn't see much choice in the matter. The team that arrived at the graveyard found the machine in John Mosley's car while you were in the woods tracking down the beacon and brought it to my attention. Normally anything like that that we recover I would hand over to your team immediately for study, however at the time it didn't seem prudent," Broyles explained.

"So you don't trust my team?" Olivia accused spitefully.

"Not completely, no," Broyles replied truthfully as he reposed back further in his chair. "Especially not that day. Dr. Bishop had gone AWOL and stolen government property, and after learning about his interactions with the device I didn't think it would exactly be prudent for Peter Bishop to be studying it either so I handed it over to Massive Dynamic, a decision I stand by."

"Well congratulations, it seems that decision killed a building full of people," Olivia said with malice.

"Come on Dunham, whoever wanted this back was willing to kill anyone to get it, no matter where it was being kept, someone would be dead right now. It's very possible that by not handing it over to your team I saved all your lives," Broyles pointed out.

Olivia finally stopped pacing the room and sat down, "You'll excuse me if I don't thank you."

Silence as they both considered each other and what had been said. Broyles usually could forgive her anger, her passion, because he knew it was because she cared about her work, but this time he was slightly agitated as he could not see how her anger fit this situation.

"Why are you so worked up over this? And where's Bishop? If he told you what this is I would imagine he also wanted to know how it got to be at Symco Research," Broyles theorized.

Olivia nodded, "He's back at the lab, he couldn't quite make the trip. He suffered some kind of attack after we left the crime scene."

"What kind of attack?"

"On the steps at Harvard, he said he heard a high pitched noise, it was hurting his head. The pain got so bad he passed out. It looked a lot like how I saw the people at Symco die on the surveillance footage but he never started bleeding. Peter said it's never happened before but Walter has a theory."

Broyles didn't bother asking her to continue, just raised an eyebrow, waiting.

"Peter said the pain was similar to that caused by the device used on him last week. Walter thinks the device could have altered his mind in some way, making him able to pick up frequencies that the rest of us can't hear and whoever these people are, they were testing that frequency, possibly to see if Peter could pick it up."

"That sounds like a lot of speculation based on a headache," Broyles replied skeptically.

"Walter's rarely wrong about these things," Olivia countered. "Either way, we have to get this machine back and then I want _my_ team to study it to find out exactly what it might have done to Peter's mind."

After a moment's consideration, Broyles nodded, "_If_ we retrieve it, your team is free to study it. Not to be callous, but Massive Dynamic is now … understaffed. I doubt they could handle it and from what I understand they weren't making much progress with it. Besides, Peter's seen how this thing works, he might have some insights."

"Something you might have considered when you first recovered it, instead of lying to me and my team," Olivia jabbed him as she got up to leave. Broyles was tempted to call her on her disobedience and get her back in his office, but he knew she worked better when she was angry. In this state she would probably have them a suspect by noon.

The next hour was spent with Olivia taking care of odds and ends at the office. She checked in with several people who had worked the crime scene at Symco. From the surveillance footage they had found how the man in the black hat had gotten in and out of the building but it didn't tell them much. He had entered through the front, turned on the device, which looked like a simple metal rod, in the elevator and then left through the private back entrance as there was no one left to stop him. There was little else to report from anyone else who had worked the scene so Olivia decided to head back to Harvard as she wanted to be around if Walter made a breakthrough on the case. As she exited the elevator and headed towards her car she picked up her cell phone and hoped her private team had made some progress in her absence.

"Agent Farnsworth." Astrid always answered her phone according to protocol which made Olivia smile.

"Hi Astrid. We're not coming up with much here, how are things at the lab?"

"Good, actually. Peter got up about half an hour ago, he seems a little better, he's helping Walter now. They have a loose theory on how this machine that killed those people might work, but I couldn't follow much of the specifics. They're having a more difficult time trying to prove their theory, apparently it's kind of hard to test it without killing us all but they're trying to work out a way around that," Astrid explained.

Olivia wasn't quite sure how to take this news, "Okay, well are you sure Peter's himself? Like he won't let Walter accidentally kill you all?"

"Oh yeah, I think self preservation is why he got off the couch actually. Also, I had to hold what was left of a human brain earlier, I may need a raise, or a vacation," Astrid added, not sure if she was joking.

"Well don't hold your breath, I'm still waiting for mine to come through. I'm on my over there now so I'll see you soon," Olivia instructed.

"Okay," Astrid signed off.

While Olivia climbed into her car halfway across the city, down in the Harvard lab Astrid put away her phone and moved down the steps to see how the Bishops were doing. On a long table they had laid out scraps of equipment, some high tech and some as simple as a pair of pliers. She watched them work for a minute, observing Walter in one of his infrequent moments of great concentration and focus, and also saw how Peter was attempting to be equally focused if for no other reason than to keep his mind off the headache that still radiated through his skull.

Curiosity got the better of her after a moment and she got closer to peer over Peter's shoulder. Suffice it to say, it was not one of their more ingenious designs.

"Those things look ridiculous," she pointed out, not to be discouraging, but just as a fact.

"Yes, but I doubt Olivia will care much about making a fashion statement if they keep her and the other officers alive," Peter countered as he turned off the welding iron and blew on the metal he had been melting.

The two Bishops had been able to come up with a hypothesis of how the people at Symco Research had been killed which basically involved harmonic frequencies that Astrid hadn't been able to follow. Now though, instead of figuring out how the device exactly worked they were focusing on ways to protect someone from its effects. They had two prototypes so far but Peter had to agree with Astrid, they looked ridiculous.

"My dear, do we have one of those … oh … those … they make holes in things," was all the description Walter could come up with.

"A drill?" Astrid asked.

"Yes, yes precisely," Walter replied ecstatically. "I would very much like one and AND a strawberry milkshake. Real strawberries, none of these artificial flavors and colors."

Peter never liked to make Astrid destroy Walter's delusions so took it upon himself, "Walter, you see a malt shop anywhere around here? We can't get you a milkshake. We'll try to find you one at suppertime."

"There might be one in the closet … uh a drill, not a milkshake. I'll go check," she offered and moved across the room.

"Terrible news," Walter mumbled but continued to work on his prototype protective gear.

However, all eyes turned from their respective tasks when the doors to the lab flew open unexpectedly and two men in suits and long black coats burst into the room.

"Can I help you?" Astrid asked tentatively as these men looked official but she didn't recognize them and had not been told anyone would be coming by for any reason.

"We're here for Peter Bishop," the first man explained but they had spotted Peter as soon as they walked in and never slowed their stride towards him.

"What the hell for? Who are you?" Peter demanded as he backed away from their approach, his instincts telling him to run and not look back.

"Sir, you're wanted for questioning involving the incident at the Symco Research facility. Please come with us," the second man requested and though they continued to sound professional Peter noted that they had split up to each be on one side of the table he was behind, effectively blocking his escape routes.

"Peter had nothing to do with that incident," Walter explained, his anger and mental state being challenged as he continued. "He is at this moment assisting the FBI in investigating this case and you will leave him to do just that."

"We have our orders. Mr. Bishop, if you do not agree to come with us we have been instructed to use force," the first man said, his voice calm and calculating as he and his partner both inched closer.

"Both of you stay the hell away from me, I'm not going anywhere. Astrid, get Olivia on the phone now! Get her down here," Peter yelled but Astrid had already been going for her phone.

"Mr. Bishop you're coming with us, please don't make this more difficult than it has to be," the first man said. Brooking no arguments he grabbed Peter's arm and pulled him towards the door.

"Ah, get off me," Peter demanded and tried to yank his arm free but the supposed 'agent' was much bigger and had a fierce grip.

"Let go of my son!" Walter yelled suddenly and even Peter hadn't noticed him picking up the crowbar from the table. As Walter swung the man released his grip on Peter and was able to easily catch the older Bishop's arm in mid-swing, forcing him to drop the crowbar to the ground. Once Peter was free he had ducked to avoid the weapon and looked up just in time to see the man backhand Walter across the face, knocking the older man into the stairwell. Peter was surprised how angry this made him.

"Son of a bitch!" he muttered as he flew to his feet, swung the man around and hit him hard across the cheek, followed quickly by a knee to the stomach. Peter had been in a few fights in his life and knew that if you got the edge over a larger opponent that you had to keep hurting him in quick succession until he was down. However, before Peter could throw another punch he heard a crackle of electricity and screamed as lightning shot through his body. For a brief moment he felt the pain, burning and traveling throughout his body. He had enough time to think that he actually preferred the headache, and then everything went black.

As Peter fell to the floor unconscious the second man turned off the tazer he had just used to electrocute him and scowled at his partner who was getting off the floor after recovering from Peter's attack. As the second man started to pick Peter up by the arm Walter began to rise from the floor and then they all froze.

"Hold it right there!"

All eyes traveled upwards to see Astrid standing above them, gun drawn and pointed at the two intruders.

"Let Peter go and back away right now!" she ordered fiercely, brooking no arguments from the two men. The second man reluctantly dropped Peter back to the ground and they both backed away slowly.

"My dear, where have you been hiding that?" Walter asked in amazement as he looked up at Astrid from the floor.

"Not now Walter. Here, take my phone, call Olivia, tell her what's going on. You two, hands above your head and don't even think about moving," Astrid shouted. "The real FBI will be here in a minute to show you how you actually take someone into custody."

"You really don't want to be doing this," the first man warned but obediently raised his arms over his head and laced his fingers together.

"Well I can't exactly let you kidnap the civilian I'm in charge of, so I kind of have to," Astrid replied with a surprising amount of attitude considering how shaken she was inside from this whole ordeal. Looking down she saw Walter appeared to be randomly dialing her phone. "Walter, just hold down 5 it will speed dial."

However, that quick moment she took to look down was all the time the first man needed. Moving one finger slightly he pushed down a button on his watch and smiled. Before Walter could press 5 he and Astrid both yelled in agony and covered their ears. Astrid's gun fell from her grasp as she dropped to her knees from pain. A high pitched noise rang through the air, getting louder and more painful by the second until it was unbearable. Just before Astrid slipped into unconsciousness she could feel a single drop of blood fall from her nose and then there was nothing.

"That's enough!" the second man shouted and his partner reluctantly shut the device off as soon as Astrid and Walter were unconscious. "Try to think next time, please. He may not have been screaming in pain but you were slowly killing our target too and if that happens we don't get paid."

"Sorry," the first man smirked without regret. "It's my first brain melting device, I haven't perfected using it yet."

"Just grab an arm and help me," the second man instructed as he grabbed one of Peter's arms and swung him onto his shoulder. The first man grabbed the other arm and between them they were easily able to carry Peter's unconscious body out of the lab and up the stairs.

"At that setting the device should have knocked out everyone in the building so just head straight for the van, no one will see us," the first man pointed out and as they reached the top of the stairs they saw he was right. The hallway was littered with unconscious bodies, a few bleeding slightly from the nose. The two 'agents' had been supplied with earpieces from their employer that had protected them from the device at lower settings, which made them able to carry Peter's unconscious body through the hallway, down the stairs and into the black van waiting out front without a single person approaching or questioning them.

As Peter was thrown into the backseat of the van the first man smirked maliciously as he covered him with a sheet to avoid suspicion.

"Sweet dreams Mr. Bishop. When you wake up I have a feeling you'll be in a nightmare."

Still chuckling to himself he got in the passenger side of the car, his partner started the car and they drove away with their unconscious prize.

TBC

What are they going to do to Peter? Not sure. I'll let you know later.

To my fantastic reviewers - if it weren't for you guys I would not be doing this. My head would just explode with ideas I never write down and I thank you for keeping my head from exploding.

Eccarter – I'm glad you're enjoying my Walter, it seems to be an on-going theme and he's actually the hardest for me to write, so I've been working especially hard to make his dialogue interesting for all of you.

Fairie55 – I believe this chap has answered your question, but a warning, I am the queen of the cliffies.

Jill Cohen – well, they were worried about injuring his head, the rest of him they don't really need. Thanks for the review!

Ali James – Yes! I love non-Olivia/Peter shippers. I feel like such a minority in this fandom! Thank you!

Mabrown412 – I actual had not specifically considered Walter's reaction to this incident until I read your review and it made me closely analyze what I had Walter do, so thank you for mentioning it, I feel the chapter is much stronger because I considered the points you brought up. Hope you like what I did with it.

Ethereal-Journal – Wow, for a story that I'm trying to focus on Peter I'm getting a lot of props for my Walter portrayal, not that that is a bad thing, I really appreciate it, it just surprises me as I feel I have done so little with him so far. Hehehe, "zapped Peter's brain" – I like that.

IplayedInTraffic – Thanks for the review. Made me blush. Walter is fun to write, hope you liked him in this installment.

MrsFitzGerald52 – LOL, H/C stands for Hurt/Comfort, it's a genre really which means you like when your favorite character gets hurt/injured/tortured and another character is there to take care of them. It's my favorite thing in the world!

Many thanks to ShadowWolfDagger, Leyla, Denise_42, Idiotic Ice, knadineg, thucyken, Arem, and madamwolf as well for their lovely words of encouragement.

Don't know when there will be more. I hope Peter is the one kidnapped in "Safe" but I have a feeling it will be Olivia or Walter – Olivia for her memories or Walter for his knowledge of what the bank robbers are looking for. But god damn I hope it's Peter!

Later, Robin.


	5. Peter's Nightmare

So yeah, the holidays were a little crazy and with the show on hiatus I am finding myself a little uninspired. I apologize that some of this chapter was kind of forced, hopefully it won't feel that way. Many thanks to my fantastic reviewers! Please enjoy the very late next chapter of …

Trust

By Robinyj

Traffic had been surprisingly light that day and Special Agent Olivia Dunham had managed to make the across town drive to Harvard in just 30 minutes. She wanted to be on hand if Peter or Walter made a discovery in the case and she almost didn't want to admit it to herself, but she also wanted to be at the lab to look out for its occupants in case something else should happen. In the last week alone Peter had been kidnapped from the lab and apparently whoever was responsible for the deaths of the workers at Symco Research had also visited Harvard earlier in the day to perform some kind of experiment, or so Walter theorized. There was simply far too much happening at the lab lately and she would be the first to admit that the facility did not have enough security. This was done intentionally at first so as not to draw attention to the laboratory on campus, but after everything that had happened Olivia knew she had to recommend soon that they either provide security for the Bishops or move the lab to a more secure location, but she didn't think the latter option would be good for Walter's mental stability. She could get them a security detail though and maybe even a permit for Peter to carry a gun, he seemed to know how to handle one already, but she was loathe to think what would happen if Walter accidentally got his hands on it.

With these thoughts of security and the well-being of her team floating through her head Olivia didn't notice the crowd gathering around the Harvard Science Building until she was already out of her car. Picking up speed she jogged towards the building where students were pushing to get inside but were being forced back by what looked like campus security. In the distance Olivia could hear the sirens of either the police or an ambulance heading right for them and she suddenly had a terrible feeling that all her concerns about security had come too late.

Four campus security guards were keeping everyone back so Olivia pushed her way through the fast forming crowd and flashed her badge to the man who appeared to be the senior employee.

"Olivia Dunham, DHS, what's going on here?" she asked, hiding her concern for her team with a brisk forward attitude that demanded an immediate reply.

"Oh, uh, we're not sure," the guard replied, flustered by such a high ranking official showing up so quickly, but dropped his voice as he continued so as not to scare the public. "We think it might be an attack or something, everyone in the building was found a few minutes ago completely unconscious, some of them bleeding from the nose."

Olivia's eyes widened, "Just unconscious, you're sure? People are alive?"

"Far as I know, nobody's awake to tell us what happened though. We have to assume biological attack, we called the LAPD and we're quarantining the building until the CDC gets here."

Olivia was pushing past him now, walking towards the steps of the building in complete disregard of the guard's warning, her only goal was to check on her team. The guard continued to follow alongside but was smart enough not to try to stop her.

"Ma'am, you can't go in, it's under quarantine, we have orders from LAPD," he emphasized.

"I'll take my chances, besides, I'm pretty sure I know what caused this and it's not biological, as far as I know. Did anybody check the basement before the building was quarantined?" she asked as she reached the doors.

"The basement? No, there are no classrooms down there, it's just for storage," the guard explained. Behind him Olivia could see paramedics and police arriving in the parking lot with quarantine suits.

"Get medical attention for the people inside and make sure a team is sent down to the basement, it's not just storage anymore," she ordered and then disappeared into the building alone as the guard would not enter, even with her assurance there was no biological threat.

Though she had planned on rushing straight to the lab Olivia was halted in her tracks as the doors shut behind her and she was faced with a hallway of unconscious bodies littering the floor. The sight was disturbing as it reminded her too much of the lobby of Symco Research, minus the blood pools. In an attempt to convince herself that this situation was in fact different she knelt down and took the pulses of two separate students – they were both alive, heartbeats were steady, though one had a thin trail of blood coming from his nose. This had definitely been caused by the same weapon used on the workers of Symco Research, however these people were thankfully alive. Returning to her original task Olivia withdrew her weapon and ran full speed for the stairs that led to the basement where the Bishops' secret lab was housed. She knew this whole situation was bad, whoever had killed a building of people had just attacked again and she knew it was because of the work or the people that occupied the basement level and she had to find out what had become of Walter, Peter and Astrid.

Rushing down the stairs two at a time, she slowed as she saw the door to the lab was ajar and then approached cautiously, gun ahead of her and ready to fire. Pushing the door open with her foot she stepped inside and swept the room quickly but detected no movement. As she continued to slowly make her way through the lab she saw the workstation directly ahead of her was a mess, and some tools littered the floor, perhaps signs of a struggle.

"Peter? Astrid?" Olivia called out into the silence, noting that Jean was in the corner happily munching her hay. It wasn't until she turned onto the elevated workstation that she found two thirds of her team, Astrid and Walter, lying on the floor. She prayed they were just unconscious and knelt next to Astrid, trying not to shake as she checked her pulse and took in the blood drying on the young agent's face.

There was the heartbeat, she thought with relief, steady and strong. She also noted Astrid's gun was on the floor, not far from her body. Something had obviously threatened her enough to pull her weapon. Moving down the stairs she checked Walter next and found the same thing, unconscious but alive.

Gun still in hand she continued to quickly sweep the rest of the lab just to be safe and was more than disturbed when she found all the halls and alcoves were empty.

"Peter?" she yelled into the darkness, feeling extremely uneasy about the fact that a member of her team was missing, again, especially since she knew he had been there when she called half an hour ago. She would have searched more extensively but a moan from behind her drew her attention and she rushed back to Astrid's side.

"Astrid? Can you hear me? Are you okay?" Olivia asked as she saw the Junior Agent's eyes fluttering open.

"Agent Dunham?" Astrid mumbled as she tried to focus her eyes and looked around the room in confusion.

"Yes Astrid, it's me. Don't move all right," she suggested but couldn't help but ask. "What happened Astrid? Where's Peter, was he here with you?"

"Peter?" Astrid repeated in confusion, but then realization dawned on her as she remembered and she forced her words out past the headache growing behind her eyes. "There were two men, they must have taken him. Said they came here for him."

"Who? Who were they?" Olivia pushed, she couldn't believe Peter had been taken again but she needed all the information now as it couldn't have happened long before she arrived.

"Don't know," Astrid mumbled again. "They had suits, black coats, tried to pass themselves off as agents, said they were taking Peter into custody but it all felt wrong. Peter wouldn't go, wanted to call you. They got violent, hit Walter, think they tazed Peter. I drew my gun, had them back away and then … I don't know, my head just exploded. I think there was a … a ringing sound."

"Like what Peter heard earlier today?" Olivia surmised.

Astrid shrugged slightly, not wanting to commit to an answer, "Possibly."

The long explanation seemed to have drained all of Astrid's energy and Olivia decided not to push her too much.

"That's great Astrid, don't move, the medics are on their way. I have to call this in and get some people down here," Olivia explained. "Can you give me a more exact description of the men who took Peter?"

"Yeah, they were both white, well built, short brown hair, crewcut short, one was early thirties, kind of a longer face. The other one was late thirties, maybe forties, square jaw," Astrid recollected quickly.

"Okay," Olivia responded and walked a few feet away to call Charlie. The other end was answered after three rings.

"Agent Francis."

"Charlie, it's me. I'm at the lab at Harvard and I need teams down here now, as many as you can spare. I have a building full of people attacked like the Symco Research facility, thankfully all the students are just unconscious though, not dead," Olivia reported curtly, hating that she wasn't racing off to find Peter immediately and had to wait for the clues to siphon in.

"Harvard? What would they want there?" Charlie questioned.

"Peter apparently, Astrid said two men showed up to take him and used a device that knocked the whole building unconscious. Also, get checkpoints set up on all major roads around the area, we don't have a vehicle description but Astrid got a good look at both the suspects," Olivia said, then repeated the IDs she had gotten from Astrid.

"All right, I'm on it," Charlie promised and hung up. Olivia appreciated that he hadn't wasted time in trying to assure her that everything would be all right and they would find Peter in one piece – these men had killed a building full of people without cause, so far the only things they knew about them were that they were ruthless and they wanted Peter which wasn't a hopeful combination in Olivia's mind.

Just as she hung up she heard two things happen, the lab doors opened admitting a paramedic in a quarantine suit and to her left Walter began moaning as he regained consciousness. Waving to the paramedic, Olivia motioned for him to check on Astrid who was still on the floor, resting her eyes.

"Check her out please, there's another man down here when you're done," she explained as she rushed to Walter's side to make sure he knew where he was when he woke up.

"Walter? Can you hear me? It's Olivia," she said soothingly as she placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him from moving. Unlike Astrid who had awoken slowly Walter bolted into alertness, eyes opening completely as his body stiffened.

"Olivia?" he asked quickly as he looked into her eyes, finding his own answers there before she could say anything. "Something is wrong, yes? I'm on the floor which is quite unusual I must say. I … I believe I remember a milkshake and two men coming in … Peter!"

The memory hit Walter so suddenly that he was able to bolt to his feet in panic before Olivia could grab him.

"Peter! Peter!" Walter rushed frantically into the hidden corners of the lab as he called his son's name without response. As he felt a comforting hand take his shoulder he spun violently to face Olivia, "Where is he? Where is my son? What's happened?"

"Walter, calm down," Olivia requested, really not wanting to have to sedate him. "Peter's not here, we think the men who came here took him but I have agents on their way here right now, we will find him."

Though he was no longer rushing through the lab Walter was not still as he shook his head in denial and spoke, his voice quieter and full of pain, "Peter, in the hands of those terrible men … they hurt him before he was taken … what they might do afterwards …."

The anguish in Walter's voice sent Olivia's heart racing with concern, "They hurt him? How badly?"

"I can't be sure, they used a tazer of some sort I believe. He screamed, briefly," Walter reported with wide eyes that suddenly became angry, determined. "He must be found Olivia, immediately. We are standing here when there is action to be taken."

Walter somehow sidestepped her again in his eagerness to find his son and she was forced to step in front of him to keep him from walking out the door.

"Walter, where exactly do you think you're going? We don't know who took him or where, or why for that matter," Olivia pointed out, hating that she had absolutely no answers.

The desperate look in Walter's eyes showed that he was trying to come up with any kind of clue as to where they could start, but his brilliant mind came up with nothing.

"We must find him," he pleaded again softly, calming with defeat.

"We will," Olivia promised but as she looked over Walter's shoulder her eyes were drawn to the workstation behind him. "Walter, what were you working on before these men showed up?"

Walter turned around to see what she was looking at and the tiniest spark of enthusiasm returned to his eyes as he looked at his creations, "Oh, these, yes, ingenious, I know. Peter was helping me with them …."

When Walter trailed off quietly at the end of his sentence Olivia pushed, "They look like football helmets, what are they for?"

A look of indignation and surprise crossed Walter's face before he answered, "Did you not ask for a way to protect yourself against this high frequency transmitter? Well, there you have it."

"Football helmets?" Olivia repeated, slightly doubtful.

By now Astrid had finished being checked out by the paramedics, and as she walked over slowly while rubbing her temples she supplied, "Modified football helmets."

"Yes, precisely," Walter agreed.

"The man in the photo had headphones, you couldn't do something like that?" Olivia questioned.

Walter shook his head vigorously, "Not with certainty of success. You see we do not know the precise, or even general, frequency that this weapon transmits to damage human cells the way it does, therefore a more general approach is the best chance for survival … as you see, this way your entire head is protected. The helmets have been imbedded with strategically placed aluminum and steel plating to protect the wearer from any undesirable frequencies, the only problem is they are completely soundproof so you will be unable to hear anything …"

"They also look ridiculous, as I pointed out earlier," Astrid added, picking up one of the modified helmets emblazoned with a capital H representing Harvard, as she had stolen them earlier from a locker room for their purposes.

"I was just about to say the same thing. How many do you have?" Olivia asked.

"We only completed two before … there were …two men and … Peter … Peter is gone!" the memory clearly distressed Walter again as he left the table to begin pacing the lab.

"Walter, I will find Peter, I promise you but in the mean time I need you here and focused. I'm going to need more of these helmets to protect my team for when we do find him. Can you do that for me?" Olivia requested of him soothingly.

Given a task to do, Walter calmed and nodded then headed back to the table ready to continue working if it meant helping to retrieve his son.

"Good. I'm going to take these two with me and go outside to head the investigation. These guys aren't that far ahead of us, maybe we can find them quickly," she said hopefully as she walked past Walter and towards Astrid.

"Peter said you wouldn't care about making a fashion statement with those things," Astrid said softly, fondly, her way of impressing upon Olivia how much she also wanted Peter found.

"Stay here, keep an eye on Walter, I don't know how well he's going to handle this. Call if you find or come up with anything," Olivia requested to which Astrid nodded solemnly.

"Same with you," Astrid countered, then smiled tightly. "Good luck."

"Thanks."

She would need it, she thought, because she had to find Peter, quickly and she had no idea where to even start.

* * *

Consciousness came slowly for Peter Bishop. Though he was almost certain he was awake he couldn't find the strength to open his eyes. Around him he could hear people walking, unhurried, some must have been women as he heard the distinct click of high heels. To his immediate left there was a constant, low beeping sound and his mind immediately jumped to the conclusion it was a heart monitor. That meant this was a hospital – he smelled the air – it was mildly antiseptic, clean and metallic – not quite like most hospitals he had been in but close enough. Strange, he didn't feel sick or injured, except for a throbbing headache which he doubted was enough to have him admitted to the hospital. His curiosity was ultimately what willed him to finally open his eyes to try and find answers.

They didn't stay open long and he moaned as the first thing he saw was an intensely bright light directly above him, shining into his eyes and ratcheting up the pain scale of his headache.

Whose idea was that, he wondered bitterly and tried to move his head to look somewhere else and that was when his concern began to skyrocket. He could only move his head slightly to the left and right. The movement was difficult and he felt a resistance that was not caused by a stiff neck. He couldn't lift his head off the bed at all and realized it was strapped down, a discovery which sent him into panic mode. He tried to lift his arms to take the strap off but his hands and feet were tied down as well, effectively immobilizing him.

"What is this? Where am I?" he demanded, moving his head as much as possible to try to see his surroundings. He was in a plain bed in the middle of a room, strapped down tightly. To his left he saw a heart monitor and EKG and only then noticed the electrodes from the machines were attached to him, reading his brainwaves. The room was huge, like a lab and was filled with high tech medical equipment, unlike Walter's lab of ancient scientific relics. He saw two women to his right who were discussing something on a clipboard – they had to have noticed his distress but they acted as though he wasn't even in the room.

"Ah, Mr. Bishop, good to see you've finally decided to wake up. We couldn't start with you unconscious now, could we?"

The cheerful voice had appeared suddenly and Peter turned to see a graying man, probably in his fifties with a white lab coat was standing directly beside him, smiling like an excited kid at Christmas.

"Who are you? What the hell's going on?" Peter asked. He wanted it to sound like an order but he couldn't sum up the conviction behind his words, he was too terrified. The last time he had been tied up like this had been only a week before and that experience was not something he wanted to relive, nor would wish upon anyone else. Speaking of which … "Walter and Astrid? I swear to God …"

"We have no interests in your friends Mr. Bishop, which is why my men were sent to get you specifically. I'm sure they're fine, but they are not here. As for who I am, you can call me Dr. Connell, and if you must know what is going on we are going to determine just how that wonderful mind of yours works," Dr. Connell explained with an excited grin that unnerved Peter almost as much as the fact that the man was reaching for something on a tray beside him. "You'll have to be conscious of course or most of these tests will be useless, but as a man of science feel free to offer any insights or theories you may have as we go. First off, the basic test. You've passed this one already, and though I do trust my Operative I always enjoy seeing the results first hand."

Peter saw what looked like a plain metal rod in the doctor's hands. He did not want to find out what it was for and continued to struggle out of fear and frustration.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have any … Ah!!"

As the doctor pressed a red button on the device the high pitched sound Peter had heard at Harvard suddenly returned full force, attacking his mind and lighting his nervous system on fire. The screams came without the possibility of stifling them as the pain was sudden and relentless.

"Stop!" Peter shouted helplessly as his body arced up in agony and he pulled at his restraints.

"Interesting," Dr. Connell noted, then fiddled with the device once more. "How many frequencies can you pick up I wonder."

Unbelievably, the pain ratcheted up another notch and Peter stopped screaming as his muscles tensed so hard he was unable to breathe. The sound seemed to be shaking his whole body apart.

The doctor hit another button and the pain went back to its original level – agonizing but Peter could breathe. One more button, the pain lessened again to the point where Peter was gasping in short huffs but no longer thought his brain was literally melting and then it was gone completely. Peter's body collapsed onto the table in relief, his breathing heavy as his eyes rolled back and he actually hoped to lose consciousness but the pain had stopped just at the right moment and he was disturbingly still awake.

"Very good Mr. Bishop," Dr. Connell praised him as he put the device back on the tray. There was a device in the doctor's ear that resembled a Bluetooth but as he tapped it to turn it on it became clear that it was a recording device. "Subject not only detects but reacts strongly to all frequencies. This implies the subconscious barriers of the mind are either weak or non-existent, possibly explaining the subject's above average IQ as well as this would increase interaction between the left and right hemispheres of the brain."

God, he was recording notes, Peter realized as he struggled for breath through the lingering remnants of pain. He was nothing more than a test subject, but for what.

"Wait, stop," Peter requested through gasps and saw he had the doctor's attention. "I don't know what this is, what you think you're testing me for but I don't have it. This is pointless."

Dr. Connell shook his head, apparently disappointed, "Mr. Bishop, we are more than aware of your special ability, which I have just proven exists and intend to learn more about. As I said though, if you have any theories as to how you are specifically able to read others' thoughts your help would be welcome and appreciated."

"Read minds? What are you nuts?" Peter accused upon hearing the doctor's ridiculous claim. "You kidnapped me because you think I can read minds?! That's the craziest thing I've ever heard and I live with someone who's certifiably insane."

For the first time Dr. Connell's smile faltered slightly as he judged Peter's reaction, "You really don't believe it do you? How interesting. How naïve. I happen to have a very interesting report written by Agent Olivia Dunham involving an incident between you and one of my other Operatives just last week, so I have to ask, if you don't believe you can read minds, how did you know where your father had hidden the beacon?"

Peter's jaw opened and then closed slowly. It was a question that had been plaguing him for over a week and he was desperate for an answer, however, he didn't quite feel like sharing his curiosity with the man standing above him.

"Walter said people can absorb other people's ideas, anyone can do it, like osmosis, your machine just picked it up," Peter replied, but the explanation was weak even to his own ears.

Dr. Connell smiled as if he had already won the argument, "I have used the Reader on many people Mr. Bishop and never once have I learned something from them that they had "picked up" from someone else. You truly are naïve if you believed that what happened was not truly exceptional. You are a human form of my own device whether you choose to believe it or not."

With that said Dr. Connell stepped momentarily out of view. Peter clenched his jaw, having no response to the doctor's claims – he couldn't deny any of them but the implications of accepting what this madman was saying were more than he could handle at the moment. Instead he focused on a different problem with a more immediate solution – he tugged and pulled at the bonds holding him down looking for a weakness of any kind but he only succeeded in exhausting himself.

Growling in frustration he knew he had to at least try to appeal to the half dozen people in the room, "What the hell is wrong with you people? Let me out of here! The FBI and Homeland Security are going to be looking for me – you think that kind of trouble just goes away?"

That was when Dr. Connell returned, his god-damned smile more amused than ever, "Actually Mr. Bishop, in our line of work, it does."

Peter deflated slightly at the confidence in the man's voice and then his eyes widened as another man stepped up beside him.

"Doctor, I trust the delivery was satisfactory," the man enquired, smirking down at the man on the table.

Peter felt his breathing speed up and his anger boiling, even though he logically knew he should be experiencing fear he couldn't help it – the sight of this man caused so much disgust in Peter that he couldn't keep quiet.

"You son of a bitch! It's you! You killed all those people! You sick bastard! There were over 600 people in that building! How much are they paying you for mass murder, huh?!"

For his part the Operative was unimpressed by Peter's tirade and rolled his eyes. Turning to Dr. Connell he asked, "Does he have to be awake for this?"

Dr. Connell was writing something on a clipboard but could tell his employee was agitated, "Yes, he does or the data can't be tested. He doesn't have to be able to talk however, you can gag him if you want."

They were both clearly sick of hearing Peter speak and the Operative smirked as he grabbed a roll of duct tape off a nearby counter and tore a piece off.

"Get the hell away from me you son of a …" Peter's curse was cut off when the Operative grabbed his chin to force his mouth closed and then slapped the tape over his lips. Peter continued to struggle and yell valiantly but in truth his fear was now skyrocketing over his anger. The arrival of a man who he knew to have murdered a building full of people was enough to increase the feeling of danger in this situation to a whole new level, but almost worse was the removal of his ability to speak. Peter was a talker, granted his mouth sometimes got him into more bad situations than it got him out of, but he was usually able to smooth things over with a promise or a story or an observation that other people would miss. Now he had just had his greatest tool taken away from him and oddly enough now for the first time since he woke up, he felt helpless.

Above him Dr. Connell and the Operative finished up their business as the doctor handed over the clipboard he had been writing on.

"Here, fill these in, think about each answer carefully, put the paper in that envelope and then you can go. I'll call you later about your next assignment," Dr. Connell explained then disappeared from sight.

The Operative took the clipboard without question and began writing as instructed. Within a few minutes he was done. As he put the envelope on the table he locked eyes with Peter who had been trying to fight his way free once more.

"Have fun Mr. Bishop. The doc has big plans for you," the Operative said with a cruel smile, threw down his pen and then disappeared from sight. Peter tried to follow where he went but again, he was unable to lift or turn his head and he growled in frustration as he fell back to the bed in defeat.

His body tensed when Dr. Connell returned, creepy smile and all. He still had his clipboard and seemed to be watching something across the room. Peter could only turn his eyes but from his vantage point he saw the legs of a cart being pushed towards him by a decidedly feminine pair of legs.

"Now, Mr. Bishop, I am disheartened that you do not wish to help me with my research but it really is of no consequence. Before we get on with any in-depth examinations of your physiology I will need a specific reading on the accuracy of your reading abilities. Ah, thank you Amanda," the doctor said and Peter could see him grab the handles of the cart. "This is the Reader's first test run since we retrieved her but I believe I was able to properly fix all the damage done by those Massive Dynamic hacks."

Peter's breathing intensified as the cart was pulled directly into his line of sight and he saw the mind-reading torture device sitting atop of it, returned to the original state he had seen it in the week before. Connell had referred to it as the Reader, but he wanted no part of it, no matter what it did and he began to pull at his bonds with a renewed vigor. The pain from his first experience was still fresh in his mind and body, he had the bruises to prove it, and the thought of going through that whole body torture again terrified him.

Dr. Connell merely smiled however as he picked up the wires that Peter knew were to be inserted painfully far up his nasal passageway.

"Now, Mr. Bishop, I would tell you that this won't hurt a bit, but as you've had an experience with my Reader before, I think we both know that that would be a lie."

Peter's pain-filled screams were muffled by the tape on his mouth as the doctor pushed his head down even more and the wires were forced up each nostril until they were touching sensitive brain tissue. As Peter felt his old wounds open up and blood start to drip down his nose, his tortured mind prayed that Olivia was close to finding him.

TBC

Thank you all for reading and just in case any one is looking into the title of this fic, when I originally outlined this story it was supposed to head in a different direction and I've made a lot of changes that kind of make the title not make any sense but I'm not going to change it, just want to let you all know not to look too much into it.

Now, my incredible thanks to my incredible reviewers!

I am the Lev – always love hearing from another non-shipper ( I like Olivia and Peter as just partners myself) and I am so glad that butt-kicking Astrid is popular. Sadly though I don't think I have much else planned for her to do in this fic, but I'll try to give her something.

Toxic – sorry the updates have been so slow – not really great for holding someone over that way. My apologies.

Zaedah – that had to be one of the most well written reviews I've ever gotten. Thanks so much for the kind words.

Denise-42 – I'm so sorry for the long wait, as I said, the hiatus has killed my motivation a little. Hopefully with new episodes coming soon I will become reinspired.

Ethereal-Journey – Glad the Astrid-Aspirin thing went over well. I was trying to come up with an angle on her name that hadn't been used yet. Yeah, Peter is totally gotten and not in for any fun!

Lamnwolf – Wow! What a fantastic, incredibly detailed review, which was wonderful! I always love knowing what is working for the readers and I'm so happy to hear I'm writing Walter well, he is so hard. He is a little boring this chapter, but it's hard to write funny and distressed Walter. Thank you so much for the kind words, and I totally agree on not shipping Peter and Olivia yet, maybe not ever, I like them just as partners, like cops.

Sawyer – thanks for the awesome multiple reviews, not many new readers take the time to review each chapter, it was much appreciated. The Peter angst is delicious and I'm glad we can enjoy it together. There will be more to come as well! Also, your review made me realize I should really come up with a name for the "brain melting device" but nothing seems as good.

Alison M. DOBELL – I'm enjoying kick ass Astrid as well, but there might not be much more for her to do the rest of the fic unfortunately. As for the device, though I watched Firefly I'll admit the idea more came from Ironman, that thing the bad guy uses to paralyze everyone – it was bad ass.

Voldermania – hope the Peter whump is enough for you, there will be more later as well. I have much planned for our sarcastic boy.

Larissa/Jasper303 – awesome! I am such a huge fan of so many kinds of whump! I don't watch Atlantis but I am a massive Danny Whumper on the original Stargate and then way too many others – Legolas, Spike, Harper – it goes on. Anyway, the idea of being the first in a new whump genre just blows my mind, as I feel Peter Whumping could be huge! And there will be more whumping in this fic, so stick around!

Jill Cohen – Peter's fate is still uncertain but the Doc has big plans for him, rest assured. Yeah, I'm kind of an H/C addict. I think it's pretty much the greatest thing in the world! Glad the Aspirin joke was enjoyed. Thanks for the review.

Neoxer – Just a shout out to let you know I'm thinking about you and love talking Fringe with you. I haven't written you back because I'm embarrassed by my lack of updating this fic. So sorry. Hope this chapter makes up for my absence!

Also many thanks to those I cannot thank personally, IdioticIce, 52, Kiriko-Sama, Lelann37, Anonymous trickster, Canine00, OrlyObsessed, crazy elf, arem. Every review warms my heart.

More will come but likely not until after the new episodes start, hope you understand and thanks for reading! Robin.


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